Photo Credit: Andre Doty
Freshmen Valeria Bellodas (22) and Tana Long (7) doing their part on the way to a 3-1 win over Hancock.
Posted: Oct 26, 2024
The Vaqueros were on the road at Allan Hancock for the final conference match of the first round of play this past Wednesday. The Vaqs came away with the win 3-1 by the scores of 25-15, 25-23, 19-25, 25-16.
The first set saw the Vaqueros coming out of the gate strong, with 3 aces in the set along with hitting .323% as a team. "I thought we did a nice job of starting the match with lots of focus and intensity, which is something we have been focusing on as a team." said Coach Niksto. The 2nd set was a tighter back and forth match, before a 3rd set that was dominated by Allan Hancock.
Coach Niksto said, "As a team we are always working on how we handle adversity. In set 3, Hancock really stepped up their serving game and it took us out of rhythm. I was disappointed by how we played in that set, but very proud of how soundly we bounced back in the 4th set." The 4th set saw the Vaqueros stepping up their own serving game with a set-high 4 aces to help close out the match.
The Vaqs were led offensively by Tana Long (14 kills) along with Neveah Tillet (12 kills) and Kaylin Cooney (11 kills). Also strong on the night was middle Grace Demmel who had 7 kills, 0 errors on 21 swings to hit .333%. Setting up the offense was Natalie Lercari-Sullivan with 41 assists, and Libero Valeria Bellodas with 31 digs.
Up next, the the #9 State Ranked Vaqueros begin the 2nd round of Conference play, on the road against the #11 ranked LA Mission.
