SBCC couldn’t overcome its own mistakes on Friday night in a 3-1 WSC men’s volleyball loss to Santa Monica. The Vaqueros (4-6, 0-3) made numerous hitting and serving miscues in a 30-21, 30-24, 28-30, 30-26 setback.
Santa Barbara, playing its first home match in a month, converted just .037 percent of its hitting attempts.
“I felt like we didn’t play disciplined and I’m a big believer in the John Wooden philosphy that disciplined teams win,” said coach Melody Parker, whose team has lost four straight. “We weren’t staying focused on the small details like where they need to go and being prepared before they touch the ball. We seemed unfocused.”
Tyson Rietz led the Vaqueros with 17 kills and 11 digs while Chris Newcomb had eight kills and Mark Hebda seven. Jim Wielebnicki, the WSC dig leader, contributed 10 digs and setter Jacob Denitz had 39 assists.
Santa Monica (7-3, 2-1) jumped ahead 18-9 in the first set and 18-12 in the second. The third set was close throughout with the Vaqueros taking their biggest lead of the night, 28-25, on an ace by Newcomb. Rietz capped the 30-28 win with a kill off the block.
“In the third and fourth games, our guys finally saw that this team was beatable but we weren’t clicking as a team. We gave them a lot of unforced errors. I didn’t think Santa Monica did that much to us to earn that win. We did it to ourselves.”
This was the only home appearance in a seven-match stretch for SBCC. The Vaqueros will be on the road next week at Moorpark (Wednesday) and L.A. Pierce (Friday).
