It was deja vu all over again for the SBCC men’s volleyball team in Friday’s season finale at the Sports Pavilion. The Vaqueros lost a five-set WSC match for the second time in three days, falling to L.A. Pierce 27-30, 21-30, 34-32, 30-17, 15-11.
It was the fourth straight loss for the Vaqueros (5-12, 1-9), who enjoyed big leads in the first two sets. They went ahead 16-6 and 28-20 in the opener before the visitors closed to 29-27. Tyson Rietz, who was playing his final match for SBCC along with sophomore Chris Newcomb, closed out the first game with a blazing spike.
In the second set, they went ahead 17-11 on an ace serve by Rietz and 24-18 on a Newcomb kill. SBCC also led 21-17 in the third set before Pierce went on a 10-5 run to take the upper hand at 27-26.
The Brahams (11-6, 4-6) downed the Vaqueros 3-0 in the first meeting on March 20 in Woodland Hills.
“Our outsides dominated tonight and we had a little trouble with timing in the middle,” said coach Melody Parker. “Our transition plays in the first two games were excellent. Some hitting errors did us in in the fourth game. The fifth game was close, it could have gone either way.”
The third set was a back-and-forth affair with 11 ties. The Vaqueros fought off three set points before a block by Taylor Comden gave them match point at 31-30. The Brahmas scored four of the last five points, however, to close out the game.
“We had that third game,” Parker noted. “When you get that close, then you have to go to a fourth game, there’s a little bit of a letdown.”
SBCC pulled within one at 11-10 in the tight fifth set before Pierce went on another 4-1 run to end the match.
“I was pleased with the way we kept our composure,” said Parker. “I thought we played with class tonight. We played like gentleman who were strong athletes and still focused on what we were doing.”
Parker said there was a lot of learning and growth throughout the season.
“I saw a lot of changes that don’t show up on the scoreboard,” she added. “I saw more maturity and the learning curve is big.”
