Vaqueros top Palomar 3-1 in home opener

Taylor McCluskey had 13 kills, 17 digs and four aces on Friday night, leading SBCC to a 3-1 win over Palomar in the men's volleyball home opener at the Sports Pavilion. The scores were 25-16, 23-25, 25-16, 25-22.

"We started off really strong, playing as a team, then we got a little too comfortable," said setter Keaton Arutian, a freshman from Dos Pueblos High. "They were giving us the game but we were having trouble earning the points and we gave a lot back.

"I'm really excited for this year. We have some new blood on the team and I'm really looking forward to playing with Taylor for the rest of the season. He's very mentally strong. Junior (To'o To'o) is our most consistent player. We have a lot of weapons and once we work out the kinks, it's going to be a good season."

The Vaqueros won their third straight to improve to 3-1. The Comets are 0-1.

Jaiden Pina and Sean Reynaert had eight kills apiece and To'o contributed six kills and four blocks. Libero Casey Alper had 14 digs and Pina produced 11.

SBCC broke open a tight first game with a 10-5 run, stretching the lead to 21-14 on a Pina kill on a back-set from Arutian and a lift by Palomar. McCluskey closed out the first set with a kill for the 25-16 victory.

There were 10 ties in the second set before the Comets scored the last three points for the 2-point win, including the last two on SBCC net violations. The Vaqueros dominated the third set, building a 13-5 edge on a rejection by To'o. Reynaert drilled a kill off the block and Palomar was called for a back-row attack to cap a 5-0 run that gave the Vaqueros a 22-10 lead.

"Our passing was pretty rough in some moments but we kept it together when we needed to," said McCluskey, a 6-3 freshman from Mission Viejo. "We played really good defense and hit our spots on serving and that kept us in system."

The fourth set was tight throughout with 14 ties and six lead changes. Leading 21-20, the Vaqueros took control on a diving dig by Alper and putaway by McCluskey, a service error by Palomar and an ace serve by McCluskey that made it 24-21. To'o ended the match with a kill down the middle.

The Vaqueros hit .370 in the first set and .211 for the night

"I'd give us about a B tonight," said second-year coach Matt Jones. "We had really nice moments in the first and third sets but the second and fourth sets, we had a lot of really poor stretches. They gave us a bunch of missed serves. It wasn't pretty by us but we clawed our way to the finish. We did a nice job with our back-row defense and our serving was alright. Our transition offense wasn't firing tonight.

"We're really going to be a balanced team. We don't have a guy who's going to carry us night-in and night-out. But I think we have enough guys with enough diversity that we can mix up our offense well and keep teams off balance."

The Vaqueros will host Irvine Valley, a State semifinalist last year, on Wednesday at 6 p.m.