No. 6 Vaqueros knock off No. 3 Canyons 3-1

SBCC used 13 aces to serve up a 3-1 women's volleyball victory over Canyons on Wednesday night in a battle of two of the state's top teams at the Sports Pavilion. The scores were 25-21, 25-23, 19-25, 27-25.

Katelynn Womack led the No. 6-ranked Vaqueros (12-2) with 17 kills and nine digs and Shannon Friend had 10 kills. Shiloe Parsons handed out 34 assists and delivered three aces. Raleigh McKinney and Hillary Bean also had a trio of aces.

"It was a tough match but we all believed in each other and we never gave up," said Parsons, a freshman from Coronado High in the San Diego area. "We went for every ball and we kept saying 'We got this, we're going to beat them' at every timeout."

No. 3 Canyons (10-2), a powerhouse from the WSC South, suffered its second loss of the season. Emily Bible led the Cougars with 21 kills.

"We're a very pass-serve oriented team which means when we pass and serve well, we'll keep the other team a little bit out of system," said coach Ed Gover. "Canyons is a very strong team with a lot of weapons. Our serving stayed strong, especially when we needed it to, like at the end of the second set."

The Vaqueros used a 10-3 run to build a 20-12 lead in the opening set. Kaitlyn Clemann got the 25th point on a kill to the back line. Canyons led for most of the second set and took a 23-19 advantage when Alize Bricot tooled a shot off the block. The Vaqueros went on a 6-0 run to end the set, thanks to a couple of Cougar errors, two kills by Womack and two aces from Bean, including set point.

Tristen Thompson had 31 digs for the Vaqueros, who rallied from a 21-18 hole in the fourth set. A block by Paige Sabin and Womack tied it at 22 and then Sabin combined with Sarah Thompson on a block that put the home team ahead. The Vaqueros fought off a set point at 23-24, then secured the 27-25 win on the second match point when Friend slammed an overpass.

"Our serving really held up in the fourth set and it was nice to see Paige Sabin, our middle, hit those serves in crunch time when we really needed them."

SBCC begins its quest for a fourth straight WSC North title on Friday when it travels to Cuesta for a 6 p.m. contest.