By Jimmy Friery
SANTA BARBARA, CA – The Santa Barbara City College Men's Volleyball team won a 5-set match over El Camino on Friday night, improving to 4-5 in conference play.
A match with long-lasting momentum swings, the Vaqueros came out in total control in set one. An Evan Thompson kill put SBCC up 8-7, and they would never relinquish the lead. Cole Richards served an ace to continue the steadily increasing lead to 18-13, and Cameron Brown closed out the first set victory with a kill at 25-17.
Set two started tight at 8-8, with El Camino's Jake Suson earning 4 kills in those 8 points. Evan Thompson had back-to-back kills from there, giving SBCC a 10-8 lead. After ties at 15 and 16, the Vaqueros pulled away to a 19-16 advantage. El Camino rattled off 6 in a row from there, though, capped off by what seemed like Suson's tenth kill of the set. Down 19-22, SBCC was finally facing their first real deficit of the match. They would lose set two 21-25.
The third set began tight, as well, with ties at 5, 8, and 10. SBCC called a timeout after 3 consecutive El Camino points made it 10-13. After getting to 15-17, a service error thwarted the chance to re-tie the score, but a Cole Richards kill later brought it to 18-20. Then down 19-23, Andreas Schuetz kept the set alive with back-to-back kills. Serving at 23-24, a service error won El Camino the set, and gave them a 2-1 lead.
Down early in the fourth set, Gavin Kristic emerged for SBCC. After a timeout at 7-10, Kristic, a setter, dumped for his third kill of the set, following 2 more traditional spikes. After a 12-12 tie, Evan Thompson served an ace and Kristic earned another kill as part of a 6-1 Vaquero run. Griffin Hurd made the score 20-15 with a kill, and Cameron Brown ended the set again with a kill at 25-22.
Now tied at 2, the Vaqueros were looking to do something they had not done all season—win a 5-set match. Previously, they were 0-3 in such matches. Friday was different, though.
All of the usual suspects contributed to a smooth tiebreaking set victory, with the Vaqueros dominating the flow. Kristic had a kill to earn a 5-3 lead, and a Brown ace put SBCC up 7-3. After a Richards kill, Kristic dumped for a point and had yet another kill in 2 out of 3 points to coast to a 12-4 advantage. Schuetz put the Vaqueros up 13-5 with a kill, and an El Camino service error ended the set and match fittingly—15-6 SBCC.
The Vaqueros comeback win proceeds a trio of winnable conference matches to end the regular season. Next Friday, SBCC heads to Antelope Valley (1-6), before hosting Moorpark (5-3) and Pierce (1-6) the following Wednesday and Friday.
