Mark Hebda pounded a season-high 22 kills and hit .515 Wednesday night, leading SBCC to a thrilling five-game men’s volleyball victory over El Camino at the Sports Pavilion. The scores were 28-30, 30-24, 30-25, 26-30, 15-12.
Tyson Rietz added 20 kills for the Vaqueros (5-8, 1-5), who got their first Western State Conference win of the season and snapped a six-match losing streak. SBCC has played two five-game matches this year and both came against the Warriors. El Camino rallied from a 2-0 deficit to beat the Vaqueros 3-2 on March 4.
“When we were down 2-1, I said, ‘Wow, we’re in the this position again, we have to go five with them again?’ ” said Rietz, who ended the match with a kill off the block. “But I was up for it. … We got in a rut and hopefully this will bring us out of it.”
Blocking was a big key for the Vaqueros with five players having five or more block assists. Max Acker-DeOliveira led the way with nine blocks, followed by Hebda (7), Adam Frank (6) and Rietz and Chris Newcomb (5). Newcomb also had 14 kills and Frank hit .353.
“We’ve been working all-week long on our blocking and it’s starting to pay off,” said coach Melody Parker. “I finally figured out what it was — preparation before you hit the ball. And also the mentality of this team. We’ve gone through some growing pains and they’re finally starting to buy into the philosophy of the program. They’re starting to believe in themselves.”
The Vaqueros jumped ahead 8-3 and 20-9 in the fourth set and 5-1 in the decisive fifth set. The Warriors (5-8, 1-5) pulled to within 11-9 before a block by Frank and DeOliveira and an ace serve by Justin Conmy brought them to match point.
SBCC will play three of its final four matches at home, starting Wednesday against Long Beach.
