Vaqueros sweep Cal Lutheran JV for third straight win

Kaylene Ureno and McKenzie Garrison pounded eight kills apiece on Wednesday night and SBCC hit a season-high .390 in a 3-0 women's volleyball win over the Cal Lutheran JV in the Sports Pavilion. The scores were 25-14, 25-12, 25-11.

Ureno, a 5-9 opposite from Turlock, Calif., also had six digs and two blocks. Garrison hit a sparkling .583 (8 kills, 1 error) and Ureno finished at .429 (8 kills, 2 errors). Karissa Mertens, a sophomore from Dos Pueblos High, had seven kills and hit .500.

The Vaqueros (5-4), ranked No. 22 in the state, won their third straight match. They dominated the first set, using a 12-0 run to build a 16-3 lead on a push kill by Garrison. Ashley Velasquez (5 kills, 4 digs, 3 aces) served all 12 points and had two aces during that stretch.

The Regals took a 7-3 lead in the second set before the Vaqueros got hot with a 17-2 burst that led to a 20-9 lead. Ureno had two kills and two blocks during the run. The Vaqueros hit .632 in the second set (12 kills, zero errors) and .455 in the third with just one error.

"We had a good match," said sophomore setter Kiana Pisula, who had 24 assists. "We played here on Saturday but this was our first match on the main court with all the fans. It was really exciting. I thought we connected strong with our middles tonight.

"It's been a fun season so far. We've been working and building the new players into our system. I think we're going to be good this year."

Grace Trocki, a 5-11 middle blocker, had four kills and no errors with four digs and three blocks.

"We played solid tonight," said coach Ed Gover. "We're working on our serve-receive, first-ball contact and getting everybody into the match was important. We're trying to keep getting better every day in practice. It's nice to have Carolyn (Andrulis) back after she missed a few matches.

"It felt good to be at home. We work on serving every day in practice and that paid off with those service runs tonight."

Ureno served eight straight points in the third set as the Vaqueros turned a 3-2 deficit into a 10-3 lead. Velasquez started serving at 10-5 and she served eight consecutive points for an 18-5 advantage.

The Vaqueros took a 22-9 lead on a kill by Andrulis and closed out the match on back-to-back kills by Velasquez.

The Vaqueros will host the SBCC Tri-Tourney on Saturday, taking on West Valley (6-3) at 10 a.m. and Cerritos at 2 p.m. West Valley, coached by former SBCC men's coach Armen Zakarian, will battle Cerritos at noon.