HAYWARD, Calif. -- The Cal State East Bay volleyball team dropped both of its matches on Friday during the fourth annual Route 92 Showdown. The Pioneers (0-2) lost a hard-fought contest to a talented California Baptist squad in the afternoon before falling in straight sets to Dominican in the final match of the day.

"I was really excited about our performance early in the day against Cal Baptist," said head coach Jim Spagle. "Our play in the evening match was disappointing and a reminder of the challenge ahead, but it's a challenge I look forward to taking on."

California Baptist 3, CSUEB 1 (21-25, 25-14, 21-25, 24-26)

The Lancers were in control to start the match, posting a .394 hitting percentage in the opening frame. They jumped out to an early lead and held on throughout the set, never allowing the Pioneers to get closer than four points. 

The second set was a whole different story, however. Riding a huge performance by freshman Kathy McKiernan, East Bay hit .500 as a team in the second set and ran away with a 25-14 victory to even the match.

After the intermission, the Pioneers continued their momentum by jumping out to a 14-6 lead. At that point, California Baptist turned to senior setter Jordan Siko for the first time, and she gave the Lancer attack a boost. CBU went on a 10-1 run to erase East Bay's lead, then won five of the final six points to claim a 25-21 set victory. 

The last frame was an extremely tight, back-and-forth affair, with neither team holding a lead larger than three points. Despite posting a .000 attack percentage in the set, the Pioneers hung tough. Trailing 23-21, they won three straight points to give themselves set point. However, the Lancers rallied to force extra points and secured the match on a pair of East Bay attack errors. 

CBU topped the Pioneers in kills (56 to 42), assists (54 to 39), and hitting percentage (.225 to .127) for the match. East Bay, however, had a huge advantage at the service line, posting nine aces and benefiting from 12 Lancer service errors. 

Freshman Kiki Leuteneker led the Pioneers with 11 kills to go along with three block assists. McKiernan finished with nine kills -- six of which came in the second set -- and paced the squad with six blocks and a .280 attack percentage.

Michaela Gardner notched eight kills, and fellow sophomore Kiani Rayford added six kills and seven digs. On the back line, senior Angie Maina led all players in the match with 18 digs, while sophomore Brandi Brucato scooped out 11. Newcomer Zoe Smith turned in six digs to go along with a team-high four aces.

Sophomore setter Kylie Fraga filled up the scoresheet almost exclusively with three's. The Western New Mexico transfer tallied 33 assists, three kills, three blocks, and three digs. 

Dominican 3, CSUEB 0 (18-25, 12-25, 21-25)

The young Pioneer squad couldn't quite muster the same intensity they showed against CBU in Friday's nightcap, and they ran into a Dominican team that played an extremely efficient match on the attack. 

The first set was tight in the early going as the teams traded scoring runs. But with the Pioneers leading 13-12, the Penguins won nine of the next 10 points to secure the seven-point victory. They didn't wait around as long in the second frame and posted a .421 attack percentage as they ran away with with a 25-12 win. 

After hitting .051 and .053 in the first two sets, East Bay bounced back with solid offensive performance in the third frame. But they still weren't able to slow down the Dominican attackers, who went on a 6-0 run to take an early 7-3 lead, then held off East Bay's attempts at a comeback throughout the set. 

For the match, the Penguins hit .358 as a team and racked up 47 kills, while the Pioneers were held to a .120 attack percentage. 

Once again, Leuteneker was CSUEB's leading scorer, posting eight kills on a team-high 30 attempts to go along with a pair of blocks. Fellow freshman Julie Navarro turned in five kills off the bench, and Gardner and Darlene Lee tallied four kills each. 

Fraga finished with 25 kills, seven digs, two blocks, and a team-high three aces. Maina notched 17 digs, and Smith added nine.

Next up, the Pioneers play the last of five matches on Saturday, Sept. 5 when they host Montana State Billings at 7 p.m. to close out the Route 92 Showdown.