The Long Beach City College women's volleyball team cruised to a 25-15, 25-17, 25-19 win over visiting Los Angeles Harbor College on Friday night in both teams' South Coast Conference opener.
The win improved Long Beach to 5-4 overall and 1-0 in the SCC while Harbor dropped to 3-3 and 0-1.
Harbor opened Set 1 with an ace by Shannon Orefice to take a 1-0 advantage. But that would be the only lead of the night for the Seahawks as the Vikings dominated the remainder of the contest.
Long Beach set the tone early with six aces in the first set, including three by sophomore Gabriela Gonzalez, on its way to the 10-point victory.
In the second, the Vikings jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. Consecutive kills by freshman Vashti Nettles (pictured) capped a 6-0 run to open the set and LBCC kept its momentum going all the way to the third.
With a 2-0 lead, the Vikings were in a familiar situation. Just last week, LBCC took the first two sets against San Diego Mesa but couldn't put the Olympians away and lost in five.
There would be no repeat of that night. But Harbor didn't go down easy.
After a kill by Jacqueline Carey, Harbor cut Long Beach's lead to 9-6. But the Vikings rallied for the next five points, thanks to a pair of kills by sophomore Kaitlyn McMahon, a kill by sophomore Danielle Tuitasi, and two Harbor errors to jump back ahead 14-6.
Tuitasi closed the match with a cross-court kill to close out the sweep and snap the Vikings' two-match losing streak.
"It was great to open conference with a win," said LBCC head coach Suzie Witmer. "We're proud of the team for finishing the sweep. Although we didn't play our best today, it just shows how tough this team really is."
Every member of the Vikings' roster saw time on the court today. Tuitasi led LBCC with 12 kills and added five digs and three blocks. McMahon added 11 kills while Nettles had a solid match with nine kills and three blocks.
Freshman Sami Uepa totaled 28 assists, five digs and three kills while Gonzalez led the Vikings with nine digs.
Lauryn Dodd led Harbor with five kills and six digs.
Long Beach returns to action next Friday (Oct 5) at 6 pm when it travels to El Camino College for a SCC match.
Photo by John Fajardo