BOX SCORE

HAYWARD, Calif. — Home sweet home. That certainly has to be the thought in the collective mind of the Cal State Monterey Bay volleyball team after finishing the road portion of its 2012 schedule with a 25-22, 23-25, 25-22, 25-16 loss at Cal State East Bay Tuesday evening at Pioneer Gym in Hayward.

CSUMB (12-16, 6-14 CCAA) finally returns home to close out the 2012 season against Cal State San Bernardino and UC San Diego Friday and Saturday. The Otters are a solid 9-4 in The Kelp Bed. They dropped to 1-11 on the road with Tuesday's setback.

The Otters got a season-high 12 kills from freshman middle blocker Victoria Clardy, who also led all players with four blocks Tuesday night. Sophomore setter Kelsey Johnston passed 36 assists to increase her CSUMB season record to 980 as she closes in on the Otters' first 1,000-assist season.

Defensively, junior outside hitter Lacee Ventura led the Otters with a career-high 21 digs. 

Even playing without top middle blocker Janai Johnson, who was nursing an injury, Tuesday's match was there for the taking. The Otters led for almost the entirety of the first set before yielding the final six points to fall 25-22. That pattern repeated itself in set two, only this time a Clardy kill sealed the 25-23 win to even the match.

The Otters battled back from an 8-1 deficit to take a 14-11 lead in the third set. As in the first set, however, East Bay got hot at the end, scoring six of the final nine points to break a 19-19 tie en route to the 25-22 win. CSUMB never led after the first point of set four as the Pioneers eased away to finish the match with a 25-16 win.
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