Vaquero’s Women’s Volleyball team lost to undefeated Long Beach City College on Sept. 11 with a total of four sets and a final score of 3-1. 

The game started with loud and exciting cheers coming from both teams. Both sides’ players communicated well, but the Vaqueros brought the energy. Outside hitter Kailyn Cooney received the first points, making an impact with her swings and blocks throughout the game. 

The Vaquero’s middle blockers made a continuous number of blocks the whole set.

Middle blocker Grace Demmel served for a point making the score 11-3. Another middle blocker Katie McArthur jumped and gave a powerful swing that forced Long Beach to block, ultimately leading to a Vaqueros point making the score 15-7. The Vaqueros kept their lead with a winning first-set score of 24-15.

As the teams prepared for the second set, Long Beach was aggressive and ready to earn a set point. Vaqueros middle blocker Demmel and outside hitter Cooney were powerful, giving the Vaqueros a two-point lead; however, Long Beach responded quickly and came back. 

“We gave up too many points when we were in the lead,” Coach Kat Niksto said. “We’d relax and they chipped their way back.” 

In the middle of the second set, it was close and aggressive from both teams with points going back and forth. Long Beach continued with hard strikes and blocks, and by the end of the set, the Vaqueros couldn’t keep up, losing 18-25 to tie the score 1-1. 

As the third set started, both sides were eager to gain the lead. The Vaqueros came out strong,  with a five-point lead. Demmel and Cooney continued to jump high and complete blocks, gaining multiple points for the Vaqueros. The set suddenly became intense when Long Beach had a comeback and won the set 17-25. 

Entering the fourth and final set, the Vaqueros were aggressive, hoping to tie the set. Setter Natalie Lecari-Sullivan gave high sets to her teammates and Cooney continued to make kills with a total of 13 in this game. Toward the middle of the set Long Beach and City College battled hoping to keep the lead. “I thought we were battling and playing super aggressively,” Niksto said. 

The energy continued to stay high, with both teams cheering on their teammates. The Vaqueros made multiple errors resulting in Long Beach coming back into the lead.

The game became more intense when Long Beach tied the score 24-24. Long Beach later hit an outside serve giving Vaqueros the point, tying the game 25-25. Long Beach served the set point and Vaqueros responded swinging, ending with a Long Beach hit that resulted in the final score being 25-27. 

After a hard battle, City College lost to Long Beach with a final score of 3-1. Coach Niksto talked about preparations for next week’s game against Pasadena.

“We’ll hopefully learn some lessons from this [game] and continue to push ourselves,” Niksto said. “We have technical things we need to work on and try to figure out what exact rotation works best for us.” 

City College’s women’s volleyball team will take on Pasadena City College on Sept. 18 in the Sports Pavillion.