SEASIDE – You have to hand it to the Chico State volleyball team – the odds of earning an NCAA Championship Tournament berth are long at best, but that didn’t keep the Wildcats from scratching, clawing, fighting…and winning Saturday night at The Kelp Bed. The ’Cats were down two sets to one and facing match point in the fourth set Saturday against Cal State Monterey Bay, only to rise up in the clutch and take the next two sets and beat the host Otters in come-from-behind fashion, 25-19, 18-25, 24-26, 27-25, 15-12.

Saturday’s win pushes Chico State’s season record to 17-9, and keeps the Wildcats in sole possession of fourth place in the California Collegiate Athletic Assocation (CCAA) with a 12-8 conference mark. Cal State Monterey Bay saw its brief two-match winning streak come to an end; the Otters are now 9-14 overall and 6-14 in CCAA play.

The Wildcats piled up 73 kills on the night, with Makenzie Snyder’s 27 leading the way. Jessica Leek added 17 kills, 12 digs and three service aces; Alex Shurtz hammered home 14 kills, and Jacqueline Johnson added 12 kills and four blocks. Sable Villaescusa doled out 59 assists to go along with 18 digs; Jessica Simms had a team-high 23 digs and a pair of aces, while Lauren Orozco chipped in with 21 digs. Rheann Fall led Cal State Monterey Bay with 23 kills in the losing effort.


The second set started as a tightly played affair, but with the scored knotted up at eight apiece, Monterey Bay used a 5-1 run to take a 13-9 lead. Chico State stayed close, cutting the deficit to two points on four different occasions, but the Otters finally took control of the set, scoring six of the final seven points to roll to a 25-18 win.

Thanks to kills by Shurtz, Leek, Snyder and Villaescusa, Chico State broke out to an early lead in the pivotal third set, but Monterey Bay came back to knot up the contest at 7-7. The Wildcats responded with four unanswered points – two coming on Johnson kills – to go up 11-7. The Otters once again battled back to tie the score at 16-all, only to see the ’Cats score six of the next nine points – three courtesy of Shurtz kills and one on a Leek service ace – to give Chico State a 22-19 lead. The Wildcats, though, couldn’t put the set away – up 23-21, Monterey reeled off three straight points to take a 24-23 lead. A Snyder kill helped the ’Cats stave off set point, but a Melanie Lashbrook kill and a Wildcat error provided the points necessary for the Otters to come away with the 26-24 victory.

Monterey Bay scored the first three points of the fourth set and quickly built a comfortable 10-4 lead. Chico State rallied to score 10 of the next 16 points to pull to within two at 16-14 – three kills by Snyder, two by Leek and a Jessica Simms service ace leading the charge. The Wildcats were still down 21-19 when three Snyder kills and one by Shurtz put the ’Cats up 24-22, but once again Chico State couldn’t finish off the Otters, as Monterey Bay scored three straight to put the Wildcats on the ropes at 25-24. This time, though, the ’Cats came back and ultimately sealed the deal – an Otters error, a Lindsay Quigley kill and an ace by Villaescusa gave Chico State the 27-25 win to force a fifth set.

The two teams traded points for the first half of the deciding set, but then the Wildcats snapped a 6-all tie with a Shurtz kill, a service ace by Orozco and two Otters errors, giving Chico State a 10-6 lead. Monterey Bay scored five of the next eight points to pull to within 13-11, but the ’Cats crushed the Otters’ comeback hopes as Snyder and Villaescusa delivered the kills that gave Chico State the 15-12 win and the match victory.

BOX SCORE

Chico State wraps up the regular season next weekend at home as the Wildcats take on Cal State L.A. Friday and Cal State Dominguez Hills Saturday at Acker Gym.