SBCC Goes Down Swinging Against Moorpark

A typical season for the SBCC women’s volleyball team ends in a WSC North championship and a high seed in the Southern California Regional Playoffs, but the Vaqueros slipped back to the middle of the conference pack in 2018 ending a six-year run of WSC North Championships.

Visiting Moorpark, ranked No. 11 in the state, added to SBCC’s struggles with a 26-24, 25-18, 25-18 sweep on Wednesday night at the Sports Pavilion. The Vaqueros finished with a 7-13 overall record and 3-5 in the WSC north.

“It’s always tough to keep them together when you’re having the season that we had this year, but you do your best to keep motivating them in practice,” said SBCC coach Ed Gover. “You keep working on thing and you teach them to fight until the very last game.”

The Vaqueros displayed ample fight in set one and overcame a 20-15 deficit to even the score at 24-24 on a dump by setter Danielle Hewitt. However, Moorpark middle blocker Emily Katz responded with a kill to put the Raiders back in front, 25-24.

Moorpark clinched the first set when SBCC’s Kenzie Garrison hit into the net.

Set two was tight early, but Moorpark closed on an 8-3 run and took a 2-0 set lead on a kill by Miranda Poole, who is the reigning WSC North co-player f the year.

“We knew Miranda was going to be tough,” Gover said. “She is one of the best players in the conference.”

Moorpark jumped out to a 5-0 lead in set 3 after back-to-back ace serves by Katz and SBCC never recovered. The Vaqueros mounted in impressive rally on the final point, but eventually hit into the net.

SBCC was led by sophomore Kate Richardson, who finished with 10 kills with a .500 hitting percentage in her final match at SBCC.

“Honestly I had some really good sets from (Danielle Hewitt) this game,” Richardson said. “We had some good passes around the net and developed a good connection.”