Dixie State held home serve and increased its Pacific West Conference lead as the Storm got by California Baptist in four sets, 25-15, 14-25, 25-22, 25-23, in front of a capacity Wednesday night at the DSU Student Activities Center. The Storm (15-8/12-3 PacWest) won their eighth-straight and 12^th match in 13 outings overall to take a two-game lead over the third-place Lancers (17-6/10-5 PacWest), and a 1.5 game lead over now second-place BYU-Hawai'i, with five league matches left.

The Storm never trailed in the opening set and bolted out to a quick 5-1 lead. CBU pulled to within three points on a couple of occasions, but Dixie State put the frame away with a decisive 12-3 run. The Lancers turned the tables on DSU in set two as CBU opened the stanza with an 8-2 spurt and never looked back to even the match at a set piece.

California Baptist kept up the momentum in set three as the Lancers jumped out to a quick 7-1 advantage. Dixie State would chip away at the deficit and eventually pulled even with CBU at 17-17. With the set deadlocked at 22-all, the Storm rattled off three-straight points, including two from senior Makenzi-Bird Murphey on a kill and service ace, and junior setter Kailey Frei (Orem, Utah/Timpanogos HS) crossed up the Lancer defense with the final point of the match with a two-handed kill that found the left corner to give DSU a 2-1 lead.

Dixie State led by as many as three points for most of the fourth set and looked to be in control of the frame up 19-16 after a Lindsay Jones (St. George, Utah/Desert Hills HS) kill. However CBU put together another late charge and tied the match at 23-23 on a Jenna Perry spike. But that would be as close as the Lancers would come to force a deciding fifth set as sophomore Brette Anderson (Prescott, Ariz./Prescott HS) registered a kill to set the Storm up with match point with service honors. Freshman Taylor Duryea (Logan, Utah/Sky View HS) then delivered her third ace of the night to clinch the victory.

"Our mindset tonight was focused and fearless," DSU Head Coach Robyn Felder said. "California Baptist always has such a good program. I thought we did a good job of letting them get their kills and not letting it get to us. It never felt like we got rattled, even in that second game when we weren't playing well. We played really composed and when we had opportunities to get the momentum we stole it.

"Our crowd was amazing," Coach Felder added. "It makes such a big difference in the small gym when we have student-athletes that are rattling the other team and the energy from the stands is there. It was unbelievable. We love our fans and give them half of this win."

Jones finished with a team-high 14 kills at hit .367 for the match, while Duryea added 10 kills to go with her three aces and five digs. DSU hit .189 as a team, but rallied with a .316 attack percentage in set three and hit at a .268 clip in set four.

Dixie State concludes its quick two-match homestand this Saturday as the Storm welcomes Point Loma into the DSU SAC at 12 noon.