The third time was the charm for the SBCC men’s volleyball squad.
The Vaqueros played their third straight five-game match on Friday night at the Sports Pavilion and finally got a win, beating El Camino 3-2 (29-27, 20-25, 25-21, 21-25, 15-11) for their first WSC victory.
Justin Hertlein had 19 kills and four blocks for the Vaqueros (4-5, 1-1), who were playing just their second home match and first in more than a month.
“After two straight five-game matches, we decided we were going to finish this one at home and that’s what we did,” said Hertlein, a 6-5 sophomore from Castro Valley. “We dug a lot of balls in the fifth set and we scored in transition. Plus, our blocking was good all night.”
Justin Carroll added 16 kills and hit .366 while Kyle Benskin had 11 kills and eight blocks. Cody Zoesch, a 6-8 middle blocker, added six blocks. Setter Kaahukane Leite-Ah Yo had 56 assists and seven blocks.
“This was one of our best blocking and digging performance of the year,“ said coach Armen Zakarian. “And when we made those digs, we were able to transition into attacks.”
Jacob Jenkins had 16 digs, Michael Naki contributed 15, Carroll had 12 and Ah Yo had 10.
SBCC broke a 9-9 tie in the fifth set by closing with a 6-2 run. Zoesch had two blocks in the run, including a combined block with Hertlein on the right side to make it 14-11.
The Warriors (4-4, 0-1) hit long on match point.
“I told the guys before the fifth game that we’re going to break through,” said Zakarian. “I talked to them about keeping the faith and just believing in what we do and what we’re running as a team.
“We weren’t afraid to take swings in the last game. I don’t think we missed a single serve in the fifth game and that was huge.”
SBCC will play three of its next four at home, starting on Saturday, March 19 against defending WSC champion Long Beach City.
