Strong Serving Sees SBCC Take Four-Set Home Win over LA Mission

SANTA BARBARA, CA – The SBCC women's volleyball team set a season-high in aces for the second straight match and capped off its best month of the season with a 3-1 home win over LA Mission on Friday at the Sports Pavilion.

With their third straight win, the Vaqueros improve to 12-8 overall and 6-1 in the WSC. LA Mission had its own three-match win streak snapped, falling to 15-9 overall, 4-3 conference.

SBCC finished with 16 aces as a team, just edging out the 15 it served up seven days earlier against Cuesta. Opposite Ava Guenther and setter Mikayla Butzke led the team with four aces each.

"Our strong serving allowed us to mostly control the tempo of the game and allowed our middle Karoline Ruiz to have a great offensive night leading the team with nine kills and only one error on 17 attempts," head coach Kat Niksto said. "Callie Rule also had a strong evening with seven kills and five digs. Caroline McCarty was a defensive machine with five blocks at the net. Mikayla did a nice job of running a steady, balanced offense, finishing the night with 29 assists and 8 digs."

Aside from pacing the team in kills yet again, Ruiz also hit at a .471 clip to lead the way. Libero Jacelin McKie had a team-high 14 digs.

Santa Barbara will look to make it four straight wins when it plays its next match at Moorpark on Friday, Nov. 4 at 6:00 p.m.