Ureno guides No. 3 Vaqueros to sweep of No. 13 Moorpark

Kaylene Ureno recorded a double-double with 14 kills and 12 digs on Wednesday night, leading No. 3 SBCC to a 25-19, 25-17, 25-17 women's volleyball sweep of No. 13 Moorpark in a WSC North first-place showdown at the Sports Pavilion.

Shannon Friend added nine kills, 10 digs and a .391 hitting percentage for the Vaqueros, who won their sixth straight match to improve to 18-3 overall and 3-0 in conference. They're also 6-0 at home this season.

Moorpark fell to 12-7 and 2-1.

Ureno hit .353 and has 38 kills in her last three matches with a .370 hitting percentage.

Carolyn Andrulis had seven kills and a team-high 15 digs while middle blocker Isabella Thompson had seven kills, a sparkling .636 percentage and seven blocks, including three solo.

Ed Gover, the Vaqueros' veteran head coach, missed the match after his mother passed away.

"This was a big game for us and we played well," said Andrulis, a 5-9 freshman outside hitter from Las Vegas. "We needed to focus on the little things, we've been scouting a lot and preparing for this game.

"We played our best for Coach Gover because we knew he needed us to play a great match and not worry about us."

Six Vaqueros reached double-digits in digs, led by Andrulis (15), Claire Bagdasar (14), Kiana Pisula (12), Ureno (12), Friend (10) and Hillary Bean (10). The 80 digs were two shy of SBCC's season high, which came in a four-set win at Cuesta.

Bagdasar served six straight points in the first set to put the Vaqueros up 18-12. Then she had to leave the court due to illness before returning at 22-19. She suffered an injury early in the second set but re-entered the contest 20 points later.

"Claire really fought through adversity and had a great game," said assistant coach Lisa Gera. "She was steady and selfless."

Pisula had 37 assists, matching her season-high for a 3-set sweep which she posted last Friday vs. Ventura. She was also 4-for-4 in kills with three clever dump shots on the second contact.

"Kiana set one of her best matches of the year in terms of establishing the middles early and relying on the pins to get it done near the end," noted Gera. "You can see that she was really confident and utilized her offensive weapons evenly."

The Vaqueros broke open a tight first set. Trailing 10-8, they went on a 10-2 run, capped by a Thompson block, a Ureno kill off the top of the block and a Raider hitting error that made it 18-12. The visitors got within two at 19-17 before Thompson smashed one in the middle, Pisula scored on a dump shot and Friend notched a kill for a 22-18 lead.

SBCC went on a 6-0 run to take a 10-5 lead early in the second set. The Vaqueros extended it to 20-14 on a solo block by Thompson. Thompson, a 5-11 sophomore from Stockton, added a solo block for the 24th point and combined with Pisula on a block to cap the 25-17 win.

"Give credit to Moorpark, they're a great team and we knew they'd be our toughest challenge in league," said Gera. "We really rose to the challenge and prepared to the best of their ability. We really took care of all the little things and did a good job of communicating with each other.

"Kaylene stayed very aggressive and fired in transition. She was tooling the block over and over again."

The Vaqueros broke open a 6-6 game in the third set with a 10-1 run, ignited by a Jaela Caston kill and capped by an ace from Bagdasar that made it 16-7. Friend ended the match by scoring the 24th and 25th points on a pair of kills off the block.

The Vaqueros travel to Hancock on Friday for a 6 p.m. match.