March 17, 2006
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RIVERSIDE, Calif. - No. 15 George Mason dropped a close five-game decision to the NAIA's top-ranked team, California Baptist University, on Thursday night in Riverside, Calif. to fall to 16-4 overall on the season.
The Patriots had seven match points in the fifth and final game, but were unable to close out the match, losing the game by a final tally of 20-18. Mason won games one and three by final scores of 30-26 and 30-21 and dropped games two and four by the identical score of 30-20, along with the final game.
The win is the back-to-back defending NAIA Champion Lancers' sixth straight, all against NCAA Division I-II teams, and 10th in the past 12 matches as they improve to 13-7 overall. Just a week earlier, CBU won a match in five games against No. 10 Loyola-Chicago.
After the Lancers and Patriots traded the first four games, George Mason quickly jumped out to a 4-2 lead on a kill by sophomore Hudson Bates, who led the Patriots with 20 kills on the night. The Lancers closed the gap to 5-4, but the Patriots rolled off five of the next six points to seemingly take control with a 10-5 advantage.
Redshirt senior opposite hitter Shaun Powell put down his 17th kill of the night to give the Patriots a 14-10 lead. Just one point away from defeat, David Mendoza came off the bench to serve and helped the Lancers climb all the way back with four straight points as they took advantage of three straight attack errors by Powell. The Patriots were still able to manage three more match points, but were unable to take advantage of them as the Lancers took an 18-17 lead of their own on a block by Urs Gunthor and Shamsu Awudu.
Bates knotted the score at 18 with his final kill of the night, but Seidu Ajanako, who had a match-high 25 kills, gave the Lancers a 19-18 lead with a kill, and Gunthor and Dan Buehring blocked Bates to clinch the win for the Lancers.
George Mason is back in action on Saturday, March 18 against No. 8 UCLA (12-12) at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, Calif. First serve is set for 10 p.m. eastern time.
