Vaqueros cruise past Hancock 3-0; Gover gets 350th win

Kaylene Ureno had 10 kills and a season-high .769 hitting percentage on Wednesday night to guide No. 3 SBCC to a 25-5, 25-11, 25-3 women's volleyball victory over Hancock in the regular-season finale at the Sports Pavilion.

It was the 350th career win for Coach Ed Gover, who's in his 26th season. Gover is 350-195 with 10 WSC North titles and a State runner-up finish in 1999.

"I'm just honored to have such great kids," said Gover after the 63-minute sweep. "Taylor (Badois) and Eryn (Young) came to watch tonight and they were part of the crew that built those 350 wins. The kids that came this year are superb individuals and great players.

"I'm just blessed that our school and our community brings these kids and their parents allow them to come here."

The Vaqueros won their 11th straight to boost their record to 23-3 overall and 8-0 in conference. They're also 8-0 at home with seven sweeps. They beat top-ranked Grossmont 3-1 on Sept. 17, handing the Griffins (24-1) their only loss of the year.

Santa Barbara has won the last five WSC North titles with a 51-3 record. Hancock was last in the five-team conference with records of 0-18 and 0-8.
 
"We needed to take care of business on our side of the net, stay focused and do all the fundamentals correctly," said Gover. "It was nice to see people who've been working hard on the bench get a lot of playing time tonight. Our main goals were to get our middles going early and to stay steady the whole match.

"Brooke Pumo got super excited tonight and everyone loves Brooke. It was the same with the setting of Daryn Odell-Dee."

Santa Barbara hit a season-high .571 with 41 kills and just three errors. It was their 19th sweep in 26 matches.

Four Vaquero sophomores were honored on Wednesday night – Hannah Cantrell, Isabella Thompson, Hillary Bean and Shannon Friend. They went 48-7 the last two seasons and won two WSC titles with a 19-1 cumulative record.
 
Thompson collected five kills and hit .571 with five blocks. Carolyn Andrulis added five kills and a .571 percentage while Pumo pounded five kills with a .333 percentage. Bean recorded a team-high 12 digs.

The Vaqueros jumped out to huge leads in each set. They led 18-2 in the first on a block by backup setter Odell-Dee (12 assists, 5 digs) and 20-9 in the second set on a kill by Karissa Mertens.

The third set was a sight to behold as the Vaqueros scored the first 17 points behind the serving of Claire Bagdasar, who had four aces in the 17-0 start and seven for the match. Pumo finished off the most lopsided win of the year (25-3) with an ace and two straight kills from the back row.

SBCC, which finished fifth in the State in 2013 and 2015, will host a first-round Southern Cal Regional match on Tuesday night. The pairings for the 18-team tourney will be announced on Thursday.