During pool play of the Cerritos Tournament, the Cerritos College volleyball team won two of their three matches and will compete in the playoffs Saturday morning. The Falcons (5-3) started the day with wins over San Bernardino Valley College (25-21, 27-25, 25-22) and followed that win a five-set win over Glendale College, 25-7, 25-15, 18-25, 24-26, 15-11. The day ended with a 5-25, 14-25, 16-25 loss to Cypress College and a second place finish in their pool. The team will now face MiraCosta College on Saturday at 11:00 a.m. in the quarterfinals.

Cerritos vs. San Bernardino Valley: After posting a win in the first set of their opening match, the Falcons were able to hold off the Wolverines after missing out on two set point opportunities. In that set, SBVC tied the match at 25-25 before an attack error was followed by a kill from sophomore Rocio Rojo-Perez (Bellflower HS), which gave the team a 2-0 lead in sets. Cerritos led the whole way in the third set and clinched the match on a service ace from freshman Daisy Segura (Cerritos HS). Freshman Grace Mendez (King City HS) led the team with nine kills, while sophomore Monica Vega (South Gate HS) had seven kills, 10 digs and four aces. As for sophomore Jasmine McNeal (Long Beach Poly HS), she contributed six kills, with Segura leading the team with six service aces.

Cerritos vs. Glendale: Segura served up six aces in the first set, as the Falcons jumped out to a fast start against the Vaqueros. They took the first two sets easily, but the momentum of the match changed in the next two sets, with Glendale pulling out wins to send the match to a fifth set. The teams were tied 11 times in the fourth set, including at 24-24, but the Vaqueros scored the next two points to post the set win. Trailing 9-8 in the fifth set, kills by McNeal, sophomore Nicole Flores (Firebaugh HS) and Vega helped the Falcons pull ahead, 13-9, while a shared block from McNeal and Flores was followed by a Vega kill to secure the match. Vega led the team with 15 kills and joined Segura with 17 digs apiece, with McNeal adding eight kills and five solo blocks. Rojo-Perez produced seven kills and eight digs, with sophomore setter Lorinet Marquez (Cerritos HS/Providence (CA) College) dishing out 44 assists and had nine digs.

Cerritos vs. Cypress: In their final match of the night, the Falcons struggled to get anything going against the Chargers. Their 17 attack errors and six service errors hurt the team's chances, with Cypress hitting at a .457 clip as a team. Vega and sophomore Mary Keil (Long Beach Poly HS) each had six kills, while Segura had eight digs and Marquez finished with 13 assists and seven digs.

Photos by Daryl Peterson