El Camino rallies for 3-1 win over Vaqueros

PJ Tulikihihifo and Cesar Medina combined for 31 kills on Friday night, leading No. 7 El Camino to a 3-1 come-from-behind men's volleyball win over No. 9 SBCC in the Sports Pavilion. The scores were 25-27, 26-24, 25-20, 25-16.

Sean Reynaert led the Vaqueros (2-5) with 15 kills and no errors for a .455 hitting percentage. Quinlan Dougherty added 12 kills and Jackson McDonough had 10. Setter Jonathan Baldwin had 44 assists and 14 digs.

Tulikihihifo topped the Warriors (3-3) with 18 kills and a .484 percentage.

SBCC trailed 24-22 in the first set, then fought off three set points. They tied it for the 17 th time on a crosscourt kill by Dougherty, then won it 27-25 on two straight hitting errors by the Warriors.

Santa Barbara had set point in the second set, leading 24-23, and it appeared the Warriors hit the tape but the official called it a block and ECC got the point. Left-hander Max Perez served two straight aces for the 26-24 victory.

The Vaqueros led 20-15 and 24-21 in the second set but couldn't seal the deal.

"That was an unfortunate call when we led 24-23 near the end of the second set," said coach Jon Newton. "We could have won it right there and gone up 2-0. We played really well in the first two sets, then they got the momentum and it was liking hitting the on-off switch. We didn't have the same fight in the last two sets.

"Bad calls are going to happen but they don't determine the match."

The Vaqueros had 13 service errors and two aces. The Warriors served eight aces.

El Camino jumped out to leads of 9-3 and 14-6 in the third stanza before the Vaqueros cut it to two points at 16-14 on a block by McDonough and Jarrod Jordan and another by Jordan and Reynaert. The Warriors went on a 6-3 spurt to take a 22-17 lead.

The Vaqueros were down 7-6 in the fourth set on two straight blocks by Jarrett Futch, then the Warriors broke it open with a 10-5 run to stretch the lead to 17-11.

"We're not exactly upset, it's more like being disappointed because we shot ourselves in the foot so much," Newton stated. "Even at the end of Set 2, we let a free ball drop when we were up 24-22. That gives the other team momentum and we're not making them earn the point."

SBCC travels to L.A. Trade Tech on Wednesday with the first serve at 6 p.m.