Oregon State Moves to 9-1 with Victory over Roadrunners
The Beavers dropped the anvil on the Runners to start the second set, taking a 6-2 lead.
(BAKERSFIELD, Calif. ) — The Oregon State volleyball team (9-1) continued their strong start to the year, downing host Bakersfield Roadrunners (3-9) in 4-sets Saturday morning at the Roadrunner Classic, 22-25, 25-13, 25-23, 25-23.
“Leading up to this weekend we had talked about how scrappy they could be as a team and they were a very scrappy, wily team today,” said associate head coach Mark Barnard. “Hitters can sometimes be impatient in situations like that and they sometimes try to do things that aren’t in their realm or what they are capable of doing which leads to mistakes. There are a lot of good lessons to take from the match and we’re looking forward to Long Beach State later today.”
The Roadrunners started the match on a 6-2 run. The Beavers remained close in the set, eventually pulling within two at 17-15 and one at 21-20, but the Roadrunners were able to hold off the Beavers and take the set 25-21.
The Beavers dropped the anvil on the Runners to start the second set, taking a 6-2 lead, capped by a service ace from Rachel Buehner. OSU continued to roll during the second set, extending their lead to eight at 20-12 and finishing the set off with a 4-0 run to take it 25-13. The Beavers hit .500 in the set, downing 16 kills on 26 swings with three errors.
CSUB kicked things off with a 3-0 start the third set, but OSU quickly tied the score at 6-6. The Beavers took a 9-6 lead and extended the lead to 15-10. The Runners closed the gap to one at 21-20 and eventually took a 23-22 lead, but two Runner attack errors bookending an Amanda Brown kill finished the third set in favor of OSU, 25-23.
The Beavers took an early 6-3 lead in the fourth set. CSUB remained close, pulling within one at 16-15 and tying the score at 19-19. The teams traded points to 21-21 before the Beavers took a 23-21 lead, with a kill from Nassar and a roadrunner hitting error. Mary-Kate Marshall finished things off with kill 20 and 21 of the match, giving OSU the set 25-23 and the match 3-1.
Marshall led the Beavers with 21 kills, followed by Nassar with 13 and Brown with 10. Nassar finished with seven blocks with Katelyn Driscoll right behind her with a career-best six.
The 9-1 start to the season is the best record through 10 matches by the Beavers since 1996. The Beavers return to action Saturday afternoon at 4:00 p.m.
They will face Long Beach State, who comes into the match with an 8-3 record with wins against Fresno State and CSUB at the Roadrunner Classic.
