Emily Banas had 22 kills on Friday night and Heidi Van Den Oever scored four of the last five points in SBCC’s 3-1 women’s volleyball win over Cuesta at the Sports Pavilion. The scores were 25-23, 23-25, 25-18, 25-23.
The second-place Vaqueros (11-9) boosted their WSC record to 8-1. They’re 6-2 at home this year and 30-3 in their last 33 and beating the third-place Cougars (10-7, 6-3).
Santa Barbara built a 16-11 lead in the fourth set, then the visitors went on a 10-2 run to take a 21-18 lead. The Vaqueros trailed 22-19 before Van Den Oever got hot with four kills, including the final two to close out the match.
“I was having a tough time getting into everything and I just had to focus,” said Van Den Oever, a former Laguna Blanca standout. “Armen (Zakarian) told me I needed to step it up and be a leader out there.”
Zakarian, the assistant coach, said he called out Van Den Oever after the second set.
“We told her she’s one of our big three (for kills) and when we’re missing her, it makes it really difficult,” he said. “When she starts hitting and she’s on fire, there’s not a lot of teams that can stop her.”
Katie Dolan added nine kills and four aces while Bianca Castro had five kills. The Vaqueros have won three straight and nine of their last 10.
“Cuesta is a really good team,” said Zakarian. “They only have two losses, to us and Moorpark, and they were in every game, except Game 3.”
The Vaqueros jumped ahead 8-4 in the third set and an ace by Dolan made it 16-9. Banas and Dolan had kills to complete the 25-18 win.
SBCC travels to L.A. Mission on Wednesday.
