With thoughts of an upset in mind, the Cerritos College volleyball team played visiting Chaffey College tough in two of their three sets before they dropped a 22-25, 13-25, 26-28 decision on Friday. The South Coast Conference crossover loss drops the Falcons to 4-7 on the year. They will open South Division play on Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. when they host El Camino College.
No team led by more than two points in the first set after the Falcons closed to within 12-11. The set was tied eight times through 21-21 until the Panthers (10-4) recorded three straight points. Freshman Brooke Winquist (Lakewood HS) staved off the loss with a kill, but Chaffey's Kendall Mency posted a kill to close out the first set. Cerritos struggled to get things going in the second set, fell behind early and could never recover.
They got off to a slow start in the third set and trailed, 11-4 before regrouping and getting themselves back into the set. Down, 15-10, the Falcons scored the next five points to draw even, with sophomore Jody Suski (Cerritos HS) earning the final two points on service aces. The teams traded points from 15-15 all the way through 26-26, with Cerritos serving for set point twice. Once Chaffey was able to get crucial kills to prevent the Falcons from taking the set and extending the match, they received a kill from Emily Silva and then capped off the match on a Falcon attack error.
Freshman Sierra Hernandez-Hardy (Bishop Amat HS) led the team with seven kills, with Suski posting six kills and 13 digs for the Falcons. The trio of Winquist, sophomore Nadia Arreaga (L.A.C.E.S. HS) and freshman Alexia Torres (Downey HS) all ahd three kills. Sophomore Regan Stanton (Lakewood HS/Long Beach CC) led the way with 18 digs, while the freshman duo of Lizbeth Vega (Paramount HS) and Mirka Granoble (Downey HS) combined for 19 assists.