Playing in its final tune up before opening South Coast Conference play, the Long Beach City College women's volleyball team suffered a 3-0 loss to visiting Golden West College on Wednesday. LBCC lost by scores of 25-16, 25-18, and 25-19 to fall to 2-8 overall.
The Vikings got behind early in each set and couldn't dig themselves out of the hole. In the opening set, LBCC and Golden West were tied at 3-3 before the Rustlers won 15 of the next 17 points to jump ahead 18-5.
It was more of the same in the second. With Long Beach ahead 2-1 early, Golden West went on a 10-1 run to take a commanding 11-3 advantage.
In the third set, Long Beach trailed by two points at 6-4 before Golden West rallied for six straight points and eventually held a 20-10 lead. But Long Beach nearly avoided the sweep with a late push. Behind the serving of freshman Kassidy Harrington (Western HS), LBCC won six straight points and got as close as 24-19 after a kill by freshman Gloria Watson (Immaculate Heart HS).
But Golden West's Marina Adolpho slammed down the winning kill to take the match.
Sophomore Rebecca Artiago (Lakewood HS) led the Vikings with nine kills while Harrington added six kills. Freshman Mary Delgado (Lakewood HS) totaled 23 assists and sophomore Karissa Pluma (Poly HS) had a match-high 17 digs.
For the Rustlers (4-4), Cassidy Paperny led all with 16 kills and setter Megan Sanchez totaled 35 assists to go with eight digs.
Long Beach returns to action on Friday (Oct. 2) at 6 p.m. when the Vikings travel to rival Cerritos College for their SCC opener.