In their most inspired play of the season, the Cerritos College volleyball team knocked off previously undefeated Long Beach City College, 26-24, 23-25, 25-21, 25-20 on Wednesday night. The win by the #12-ranked Falcons (11-2, 3-0) moves the team into first place in the South Coast Conference South Division and was their seventh victory in a row. As for the Vikings (14-1, 2-1), who came into the night ranked #2 in the state and #1 in Southern California, it was their first loss of the season. Cerritos will now host Los Angeles Harbor College at 6:00 p.m. on Friday in another conference match.

After both teams won a set, the Falcons were able to take advantage in the match when they pulled out a win in the all-important third set. With the set tied, 12-12, Cerritos received a kill by sophomore Monserrat Rodriguez (Gahr HS/Long Beach City College), along with a pair of attack errors by the Vikings to go up, 15-12. Although the Falcons didn't relinquish the lead, they were able to hold off Long Beach City and pulled out the win after two more Vikings errors and a kill by sophomore Sydney May (Los Alamotos HS/UC Santa Cruz) sealed the 25-21 win in the third set.

Riding that momentum, Cerritos recorded the first five points in the fourth set, and by the time it was a 9-3 Falcons lead, the Vikings had burned both of their timeouts. Long Beach started to struggle at the net, and after three more attack errors and the Falcons were out to a 15-7 lead. The teams traded points until Long Beach made their final run at extending the match. Leading 24-16, the Falcons saw LBCC close the gap to 24-20 before May finished the night with the last kill to secure the win.

May led the team with 17 kills to go along with 19 assists and nine digs, while Rodriguez drove home 13 kills and also had nine digs. It was a balanced offensive attack by the Falcons, who also received nine kills and nine digs from sophomore Jasmine Soto-Castro (Schurr HS), as well as eight kills from sophomore Lillianna Peterson (California HS) and her eight kills. Sophomore Brisa Cortez (Schurr HS) also came through with five key kills in the win, with sophomore setter Leeya Rubio (Schurr HS) accounting for 24 assists and 12 digs and sophomore libero Priscilla Castillo (Schurr HS) a key component in the win with her back row performance and 16 digs.

Photos by Daryl Peterson