On Friday, the Cerritos College volleyball team earned their third sweep in the last four matches, as they defeated rival Long Beach City College, 25-23, 25-15, 25-14. The Falcons (3-12, 1-5) will look to continue their upswing on Wednesday when they host East Los Angeles College in a 6:00 p.m. match.

A back-and-forth first set ended up going the Falcons way when they broke a 23-23 tie after a Kaydence Portillo (Bell Gardens HS) kill and service ace by Breanna Lizarraga (Paramount HS) closed out the set. Trailing, 21-20 in the set, Cerritos benefitted from a pair of Long Beach City attack errors and a kill from Portillo to put the team in position to take the set.

Cerritos fell behind 8-6 in the second set, but a pair of service aces from Carissa Mendibles (Downey HS) helped them pull ahead, 10-8 and didn't trail the remainder of the set. The lead swelled to 18-11 after Lizarraga served up two more aces, along with a kill from Aiyana Sierra (La Mirada HS). They finished off the Vikings on an Abby Gutierrez (Downey HS) kill to take a 2-0 lead in sets.

An early deficit in the third set was rectified by Cerritos when they ran off eight straight points to lead 17-8 and put some distance between themselves and Long Beach City. On the rally, four Viking errors were followed by a Mendibles service ace and then three consecutive kills from Gutierrez. The Falcons finished off the set and match on three consecutive errors from the Vikings.

Sierra had her second consecutive strong match, as she led the team with nine kills and no attack errors, while Portillo posted eight kills. The offense was also aided by five Gutierrez kills, with Sonye Garcia (Paramount HS) and Kira Magdaleno (Artesia HS) each recording four kills. Lizarraga led the team with 18 digs and five service aces, with Magdaleno turning in 13 kills from the back row. Mendibles directed the offense with 27 assists, while Lizarraga was able to chip in with three helpers on the night.

Photos by Daryl Peterson