For the seventh time in the last nine matches, the Cerritos College volleyball team was defeated. On Friday, the Falcons (7-9) dropped a four-set South Coast Conference crossover match to visiting Pasadena City College, 25-15, 12-25, 25-20, 22-25. The team will look to turn things around when they travel to Rio Hondo College on Wednesday for a 6:00 p.m. conference crossover match.

The first two sets were struggles for Cerritos, who hit at a combined negative percentage, while the Lancers (11-6) had just one hitting error in the second set. The Falcons started to turn things around with a win in the third set and extended Pasadena City in the fourth set before running out of time.

In the third set, Cerritos scored the first seven points with sophomore Rocio Rojo-Perez (Bellflower HS) at the serve. A 12-5 lead was cut to a 19-16 advantage until a Grace Mendez (King City HS) kill and Lancer attach error gave them a 21-16 cushion. Another attack error and kills by Mendez and sophomore Mary Keil (Long Beach Poly HS) drew the team to within one point of the set win. They closed it out with a PCC service error.

The fourth set was one where both teams traded multiple points. After Cerritos scored the first three, PCC came back with three of their own. The set was tied nine times, with Pasadena City breaking a 19-19 tie with four consecutive points. A Lancer service error was followed by two attack errors to draw the Falcons to within 23-22, with PCC scoring the next two points to close out the win.

On the night, Keil led the team with 13 kills and added 11 digs, with sophomore Monica Vega (South Gate HS) contributing 10 kills and nine digs. Sophomore setter Lorinet Marquez (Cerritos HS/Providence, CA College) dished out 28 assists with a team-high 13 digs, with Rojo-Perez leading the team with four service aces to go along with 11 digs.

Photos by Daryl Peterson