Emily Banas racked up seven of her 17 kills in the fourth set Friday night as SBCC overcame a 20-15 deficit to beat Citrus 26-24 and capture its final nonconference women’s volleyball match 3-1 at the Sports Pavilion. The scores were 25-19, 18-25, 25-16, 26-24.
Banas also had 30 digs. Heidi Van Den Oever had 15 kills and Bianca Castro added eight with no errors for a .470 hitting percentage. Libero Melissa Luke had a match-high 33 digs.
Santa Barbara, ranked No. 25 in California, improved to 3-8. The Vaqueros have won 26 of their last 28 at home.
“We played with a lot of effort and consistency, which got us the win,” said Banas, a 5-8 freshman from San Pedro. “We have a new libero and back row and things are starting to come together.”
SBCC closed the first set on a 9-3 run, capped by a dump shot from setter Mariah Mathews. The Vaqueros jumped ahead 17-8 in the third set and capped the 25-16 win on a roof by Rachel Stehley and a kill by Arianna Kamp down the line.
Citrus (7-5) fought off two match points to tie the fourth set at 24. Banas drilled a shot through the block and Castro ended it on a quick attack in the middle.
“We tried to make things simple and we started out great,” said assistant coach Armen Zakarian. “Emily served a bunch of points in that third set and helped us go ahead 9-3.
“In the fourth set, we took our last timeout trailing 20-15 and told them we were playing not to lose instead of playing to win. They took that to heart and all of a sudden, we flipped the switch and started serving a little tougher and passing a little better.
“Emily is a feisty player. She can put the ball down and knows how to hit around the block or through the block.”
The Vaqueros open WSC North play on Wednesday at Oxnard.
