Women's Volleyball: Long Beach outlasts East Los Angeles for five-set victory

Freshman Mary Delgado had a double-double with 35 assists and 14 digs in LBCC's win over East Los Angeles. (File photo by John Fajardo)
Freshman Mary Delgado had a double-double with 35 assists and 14 digs in LBCC's win over East Los Angeles. (File photo by John Fajardo)

The Long Beach City College women's volleyball team picked up its second win out of three matches as the Vikings earned a marathon 3-2 victory over visiting East Los Angeles College on Friday night at LBCC.

Long Beach took the opening set 26-24 before ELAC rallied for 25-16, 25-21 wins in Set 2 and 3 to go ahead 2-1. But LBCC forced a deciding fifth set after a 27-25 victory in the fourth and closed out the match-win with a 15-8 win.

In the fifth, the Vikings jumped out to a 4-1 lead and never trailed. But East Los Angeles got as close as 6-5 before Long Beach rallied for six straight points behind the serving of freshman Gloria Watson (Immaculate Heart HS). Her ace put the Vikings up 10-5 while a Huskies hitting error and a block by sophomore Rebecca Artiago (Lakewood HS) and Kassidy Harrington (Western HS) gave LBCC a commanding 12-5 advantage.

Artiago's kill made the score 13-6 before two East Los Angeles errors closed out the win.

Harrington led the Vikings with 16 kills on the night to go with six digs. Watson totaled 14 kills and six digs while Artiago had 10 kills and four blocks. Sophomore Karissa Pluma (Poly HS) had a match-high 27 digs and freshman Mary Delgado (Lakewood HS) had a double-double with 35 assists and 14 digs.

With the win, Long Beach improved to 5-14 overall and 3-6 in SCC play. The Vikings return to action on Wednesday (Nov. 4) when they travel to Los Angeles Trade-Tech College for a 6 p.m. match.