University of California, Merced – Bobcats Win Five-Set Thriller Over LC State On Opening Day, Fall to Menlo College

ATHERTON, Calif. – The University of California, Merced women’s volleyball team split their season-opening doubleheader, beating Lewis-Clark State College in five sets before falling to Menlo College 3-1 in the nightcap.

The Bobcats have now won two of their past four season openers. The Bobcats earned the win and snapped LC State’s four-match winning streak by scores of 25-23, 9-25, 25-19, 22-25, 15-12. Saturday also marked the Bobcats first five-set match since April 1, 2021, a stretch of 31 consecutive matches.

Olanasaze Ojo highlighted the Bobcats victory with a career-high 15 kills on a .333 hitting percentage. Ojo’s 15 kills is the second-highest kills mark for any Bobcat all-time in a season opener. Ojo, who is seventh all-time on the program’s all-time blocks list, also had four blocks in the neutral site match against LC State. One of her four blocks was solo.

Serena Choi was good for a career-high seven kills, while Valentina Evans pitched in five kills and three other Bobcats recorded four. Alexa Ultreras was one of the three Bobcats with four kills, marking a career-high. 

Bianca Malaluan led the Bobcats with 20 assists and tied her career-high with ten digs for her second career double-double. Malaluan is also the first Bobcat since 2016 with an assist/dig double-double in the season opener.

Tea Bishop tallied a career-high 13 digs and two service aces. Destiny Lei Ramilo finished with ten digs. Jalen Carey earned the start at libero and contributed nine digs and a pair of service aces.

Freshman Semiramis Tanasecu tallied five blocks, the most by a Bobcat in a season-opener since 2016.

Other notables include eight digs, seven assists, and two blocks from Choi, six assists from freshman Ellie Gordon, three blocks from Evans, two blocks from Teola Nowak and an ace from Haley Branley.

Head coach Ai Prachumsri‘s team tallied nine blocks overall.

Each team held four-point leads in the opening set, but the Bobcats took the lead for good after breaking a 19-19 tie via an Evans kill. Soon after, Evans delivered another kill for a 23-20 lead and an Ojo kill set up by Gordon allowed the Bobcats to be victorious in the opening set.

The Bobcats never led in the second set, but bounced back nicely in the third set to take a 2-1 match lead. A 6-0 run with Bishop behind the service line set up the Bobcats for success in the frame….