The Riverside Press-Enterprise
SBVC takes care of Mt. San Jacinto in conference thriller
SAN JACINTO >> The Mt. San Jacinto College and San Bernardino Valley College women’s volleyball teams exchanged powerful kills, digs and aces over the course of 2 1/2 hours of an Inland Empire Athletic Conference match Wednesday night.
In the end, it was SBVC making fewer errors and prevailing 25-19, 20-25, 2628, 32-30, 15-11 to move a half game ahead of MSJC in the IEAC standings. The Wolverines now are in position to win at least a share of the program’s first conference championship since 2006.
SBVC avenged a 25-20, 23-25, 25-16, 25-18 loss to the Eagles in early October.
“I thought we’d be in the conference’s upper half this year, but to be in this position ... I don’t know that I expected that,” Wolverines coach Robert Vansant said. “But these girls have done a great job of buying into everything I’ve thrown at them this year and are being rewarded for it.”
SBVC (16-6, 9-1 in conference) led 11-4 early in the opening set before MSJC (19-4, 8-1) responded with an 8-2 run to close the gap. Megan Gajda had a pair of aces and Carley Kruse added two kills, but SBVC stayed in front as Loleaulelei Mamea had a solo block and kill to preserve the lead.
Brooklyn Thomas had two kills in the second set to put MSJC up 14-8. Mania Mamea posted three straight kills to trim the lead to two points, but an ace by the Eagles closed the set and evened the match.
In the third set, SBVC led as late as 24-23, but MSJC rallied behind three kills from Mckenna Conklin and
an ace from Kruse to win the first of two deuce sets and remain in the match.
Kruse was in on consecutive blocks, and Gajda added an ace in set four to put the Eagles up 23-21. However, SBVC survived six set points and prevailed on an MSJC ball-handling violation to force a deciding set. The Mameas combined for three kills and Arianna Romero added a solo block in the final run by the Wolverines.
SBVC jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the fifth set after an ace by Itzana Rojas but saw that lead shrink to a point as Trysta Vincelli won a joust at the net. Anai Casillas put down an overpass to put SBVC in front 11-9, and another ball-handling error by the Eagles ended the match.
“At crucial times we made more errors, and tonight that was the difference,” Eagles coach Serinna Eason said. “We have been telling our team since the second round that everyone would be giving us their best shot and SBVC did just that tonight.”
Mania Mamea had 17 kills for SBVC. Conklin and Kruse each had 15 kills in defeat for MSJC.