Looking to score its biggest upset of the season, the Long Beach City College women's volleyball team came up just short in falling to No. 19 state-ranked Pasadena City College 3-2 on Friday at LBCC. Long Beach lost the South Coast Conference match by scores of 27-25, 25-14, 22-25, 21-25, and 15-3 to fall to 3-12 overall and 1-4 in the SCC.
LBCC faced a state-ranked opponent for its second consecutive match and after losing at No. 6 El Camino College on Wednesday, the Vikings came out on Friday with a different attitude.
Long Beach nearly opened the match with a win in the first set, but couldn't close out the Lancers. After the teams traded points, LBCC held a narrow 15-13 lead after a kill by freshman Gloria Watson (Immaculate Heart HS). Pasadena eventually jumped ahead 23-20 before the Vikings rallied to tie it up. A PCC service error and back-to-back kills by Watson made the score 23-23. Sophomore Rebecca Artiago's (Lakewood HS) middle kill gave Long Beach set point at 25-24. But PCC responded with a block and then took advantage of a pair of LBCC errors to close out the victory.
Set 2 was never in doubt for Pasadena as the Lancers jumped out to an early 7-1 lead. Long Beach got as close as 10-7 after a kill by Artiago, but couldn't close the game as momentum was clearly on the side of the Lancers.
Long Beach got the momentum back in the third by denying a PCC sweep. LBCC was up 13-9 after a pair of Pasadena attack errors before the Lancers rallied. Pasadena responded by winning the next six points, including three by ace, to jump ahead 15-13. But Long Beach slowly chipped away. Sophomore Karissa Pluma's (Poly HS) ace put LBCC back out in front and a block by sophomores Helen Marangos (Santa Fe HS) and Lauren Christensen (Valley Christian HS) extended the Vikings' lead to 19-17. Moments later, Christensen's kill gave Long Beach the set victory.
In the fourth, Long Beach led 16-12 after three straight Pasadena errors. More PCC errors increased the Viking lead. Later, three more consecutive errors had Long Beach up 20-14.A kill by Christensen once again closed out the win to force a deciding fifth set.
And in the fifth, errors doomed the Vikings. Pasadena jumped out to a 5-0 lead and never looked back. The Lancers were up 13-2 before Long Beach showed late life. A pair of kills by Artiago and an ace by freshman Terina Nua (Henderson, NV) made the score 13-5, but the lead was too big to overcome.
Watson led the Viking offense with 13 kills on the night to go with eight digs. Christensen came off the bench to post 11 kills and three blocks while Artiago and freshman Alexxis Todd (Lynwood HS) added nine kills each. Pluma led all with 28 digs and freshman Mary Delgado (Lakewood HS) had 49 assists. Marangos also had a good all-around night with seven kills, five digs, and four blocks.
Long Beach returns to action on Wednesday (Oct. 21) at 6 p.m. when the Vikings host Mt. San Antonio College in a SCC match.
