Vaquero rally falls short in 3-2 setback

SBCC won the fourth set and overcame a 14-9 deficit in the fifth set of a men's volleyball match on Tuesday night in the Sports Pavilion, only to see Palomar scratch out three more points to prevail 3-2. The scores were 17-25, 25-20, 25-21, 25-19, 17-15.

The teams had nearly identical uniforms (white shirts with red numbers and black pants) and there was very little to separate the two. The final point total was 106-103 in favor of the Vaqueros.

"Offensively on the pins, I think we struggled with a lot of errors and weren't able to score points," said coach Matt Jones. "We hadn't seen this team on film but after the first set, we had some adjustments to make and we didn't execute those well.

"No. 2 (Nick Supple), their lefty outside hitter, really killed us, especially down the line."

 Evan Yoshimoto had 14 kills and seven digs to lead the Vaqueros (2-2) and his brother, Owen, added 13 kills and eight digs. Middle blocker Davis Grininger collected 10 kills and had a team-high .420 hitting percentage. Carl Mendoza made 24 digs.

Anthony Pippen, a 6-6 sophomore opposite, topped the Comets (1-3) with 18 kills and Supple had 14.

After tying the match at 2-2, the Vaquero jumped ahead 5-2 in the fifth set. The Comets rallied to tie it at 8, then took control with a 6-1 run powered by two blocks and a kill by Supple from the right side.

The Vaqueros rallied behind three straight kills from Evan Yoshimoto. They tied it at 14 after a Palomar hitting error and a low set that resulted in a hit into the net. Shane Dyer hit wide to put the Vaqueros down by one, then Grininger tied it with a kill in the middle.

The two-hour match ended on a powerful spike by Pippen and an Evan Yoshimoto spike that went long.

The Vaqueros put together a 9-5 run in the opening set and took a 17-12 lead on kill by Evan Yoshimoto from the back row. The Comets used a 10-3 burst to assume a 19-12 lead in Game 2. The third set was close throughout but the visitors closed on a 4-1 run to post the 25-21 win.

The fourth set had seven ties before the Vaqueros went on a 9-3 run and took a 20-14 lead on a kill by Owen Yoshimoto. The set ended on a Comet error and a back row blocking infraction.

"Owen did some nice things for us and Carl was pretty scrappy, passing for a 2.2 rating (on a scale of 3.0)," said Jones. "We finally got some momentum in the fourth set but things got away from us at the end of the fifth."

The Vaqueros will host San Diego Mesa on Friday at 6 p.m.