“We blocked well in all the games,” said Hertlein, one of seven sophomores on the Vaquero roster. “At the end of Game 4, we stopped making errors. We played our style of volleyball, then they fell into our game and we ended up finishing.”
The Vaqueros (6-6, 3-2 WSC) posted their second straight win and third in four matches. Moorpark, the defending state champion, fell to 5-7 and 1-4. The Raiders have just two sophomores and one, 6-7 Erik Jansen, led all hitters with 16 kills.
SBCC trailed 18-16 in the fourth set and coach Armen Zakarian thought about calling timeout but his assistant, Eric Vincent, told him to stay the course.
“He got me to calm down and believe in what the guys can do,” said Zakarian, a former Vaquero star who‘s in his first year as head coach. “I’m young and sometimes I get emotionally involved just like my team.”
Justin Carroll and Michael Naki added eight kills apiece while 6-7 Cody Zoesch had five kills and six blocks. Carroll ended the first and third sets with kills off the block. Naki reacted quickly to make an amazing dig with his right foot early in the second set.
Jacob Jenkins had 17 digs and Kaahukane Leite-Ah Yo delivered 43 assists.
Trailing 18-17 in the fourth set, Morgan Youngs came off the bench and served three straight points to put the Vaqueros on top 20-18. Zoesch had a roof block and Ah Yo made a clever dump shot.
The Vaqueros rallied from a 21-20 deficit with a 5-1 closing run. Zoesch and Naki recorded kills to make it 24-22 and the match ended on a Raider hitting error.
SBCC plays host to L.A. Pierce on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
