Rachel Stehly did a little of everything on Friday night with five kills, four blocks and three ace serves in a 25-19, 25-23, 25-13 women’s volleyball sweep of L.A. Mission at the Sports Pavilion.
Emily Banas had 12 kills and Heidi Van Den Oever contributed eight for the 24th-ranked Vaqueros, who won their fifth straight to improve to 7-8 overall and 4-0 in the WSC North.
Katie Dolan added four kills and Mariah Mathews had 27 assists for SBCC, which has won 28 of its last 30 at home.
“We’ve been working on our serve-receive this entire season and we’re getting better, slowly but surely,” said assistant coach Armen Zakarian. “We faced a good Mission team that’s a first-year program. They have a very similar system to the one we play. They did a good job of taking our middles out of the equation.
“Luckily, our outsides, Emily and Heidi, came through for us.”
The Vaqueros built a 19-10 lead in the first set and prevailed 25-19 on a kill by Van Den Oever, a former Laguna Blanca standout. The Eagles (3-6, 1-2) erased a 17-10 deficit in the second set and tied it at 22-all. The Vaqueros won it with three straight points, capped by a kill from Banas.
Melissa Luke had two aces during a 6-0 serving run in the third set that gave SBCC a commanding 14-4 advantage. Bianca Castro had two straight blocks to make it 19-8. Stehly, a 6-foot freshman, closed out the sweep with a block on match point.
“Give credit to L.A. Mission, they served tough but we were beating ourselves,” Zakarian added. “We needed to pass a little better. We’re building good leads by working hard and then we’re giving them right back. We need to clean that up.”
The Vaqueros travel to Hancock on Friday night.
