By Jimmy Friery
SANTA BARBARA, CA – The Santa Barbara City College Men's Volleyball team celebrated sophomore night with a win over Pierce on Friday, a 3-0 sweep.
The program honored its 7 sophomores—Andreas Schuetz, Troy Fitzgerald, Cameron Brown, Vinny Costa, Cole Richards, Nathan Adaniya, and Gavin Kristic—in their final home match of the regular season.
No less, the win ends the Vaqueros regular season with a 9-8 overall record and a 7-5 conference record, good for 4th in the WSC.
After losing the first set in the previous matchup at Pierce, the Vaqueros won 3 straight for a 3-1 win back on March 20. The streak continued through the conclusion of Friday's match at SBCC.
Evan Thompson had back-to-back blocks to give the Vaqs an 11-5 advantage in the first set. Shortly after, he blocked another before a kill on the following point to make it 14-6. Ty Reedy swatted a kill to increase the lead to 21-10, and SBCC coasted to a 25-14 victory.
In set two, Vinny Costa dealt an ace to give the Vaqueros a 4-3 early lead—one that they would never relinquish. Troy Fitzgerald got a kill to make it 10-6, and Cole Richards earned a kill and block to pad the lead to 16-9. Nathan Adaniya got a kill late in the set, on the way to a 25-19 win.
Eyeing a sweep, Cameron Brown tallied a kill for a 3-1 start. All three sets started 3-3, but the third set was more competitive, tied at 7, 10, and 12.
But, great serving allowed the Vaqueros to pull away. After Andreas Schuetz and Ewan Richards served aces, Gabe Stopani went on a 4-0 serving run from 15-14 to 19-14. In that span and the point prior, Schuetz had 2 kills, Harry Nenninger had a kill and a block, and Fitzgerald had a block. Gavin Kristic then served an ace at 21-15 to all but ice the match.
The Vaqueros had fun to finish the match, with 5'10 (listed) setter Vinny Costa getting his first and only kill of his Vaquero career.
"He's 5'7! Clap, clap, clap-clap-clap," rang out from the Vaqueros bench.
Cole Richards fittingly got another kill on the penultimate point, and the Vaqueros won 25-14, 25-19, 25-19.
SBCC awaits playoff seeding, but is expecting to be the 8-seed in the 3C2A State Championships with quarterfinals beginning on Friday, April 19.
