McDonough, Futch spark sweep of Santiago Canyon

Jackson McDonough recorded 14 kills and Jarrett Futch added 12 on Wednesday night, leading SBCC to a 25-15, 25-16, 25-20 sweep of Santiago Canyon at the Sports Pavilion.

It was the first win of the year for the eighth-ranked Vaqueros (1-1) and the first match ever for the Hawks.

McDonough, a 6-4 sophomore from Concord, Calif., hit .407 with just three errors. Futch, a 6-6 middle blocker from Madison, Wisc., was even better with just two errors and a .625 percentage. Jonathan Baldwin compiled 24 assists and eight digs and backup setter Adam Simonetti piled up 11 assists in the third set.

The Vaqueros hit .385 in the first set, .391 in the third and .346 for the match.

"They're a new program playing their first match and we came out a little slow, missing a lot of serves," said McDonough. "Besides that, we played very scrappy and cohesive as a team. In the last set, we got some other players in and tried a couple of new things."

The Vaqueros broke open a close opening set with an 7-0 run, capped by a block from McDonough and Futch that made it 20-12. Futch closed out the 25-15 win with a slam in the middle.

The Vaqueros missed 23 serves in their season opener vs. Fullerton and they had 16 service errors on Wednesday with seven aces. Sean Reynaert had seven kills and four aces.

"It was good to get into our rhythm tonight," McDonough added. "We have a very talented team. If we can start getting more consistent with our serves and play cohesive as a team, we could be unbeatable."

The Vaqueros took a 10-5 lead in the second set on an ace by Baldwin and a Dougherty block off the opponent's shoulder. It grew to 14-6 on a sizzling ace by Dougherty and a block by Dougherty and Jarrod Jordan. Another kill by McDonough made it 18-8.

"We did a good job of executing," said coach Jon Newton. "Obviously it's still early in the season so there's still some fine-tuning to do. A lot of the stuff we're teaching, we're slowly started to see the changes.

"We need to work on those missed serves. We got away with it tonight because we good offensively and in other parts of the game. That doesn't work when you play top teams."

Newton tried some different lineups in the third set and the Vaqueros led 6-4 before the Hawks went on a 7-2 run and took a 13-8 lead on a kill by Ryan Hernandez. The Vaqueros rallied back with a 10-3 burst, capped by the fourth ace from Reynaert, that produced an 18-16 advantage.

SCC tied the game for the seventh time (19-19) on a service error, then a McDonough kill ignited a 6-1 match-ending run. McDonough got the 23rd point on a shot down the line and ended the match with his 14th kill.

"McDonough and Futch both played well," Newton noted. "Offensively, we're strong and we have good fundamentals. When we're in system, we can score a lot of points. Our passing has improved a lot lately. When we can get the ball up to the net and run our guys, we're going to have a lot of success."

The Vaqueros travel to El Cajon to take on No. 9 Grossmont on Saturday at noon.