(Bakersfield, CA) The Mt. SAC Women's Volleyball team took to the road on its first weekend of action and played two five-set marathon matches against Bakersfield and Santa Barbara colleges Saturday, August 28 at the Bakersfield Quad.
The Mounties fell by identical, 3-2, scores against both schools.
In other scores of the quad, College of the Sequoias was 0-2, Bakersfield was 3-0 and Santa Barbara was 2-1.
"We went into this weekend knowing that the competition was going to be tough, and Bakersfield and Santa Barbara lived up to those expectations," Mt. SAC Women's Volleyball coach Samantha Neely said. "Although the final score didn't go our way for either game, the close five-set matches showed that we can without a doubt compete at that level.
"We played point-for-point and remained competitive the whole match. Having an all-freshman group that is able to play like this so early on in the season makes us excited to see how we continue to progress."
Bakersfield defeats Mt. SAC, 22-25, 25-17, 26-28, 25-15, 15-12
After a 3-0 win on Friday over Citrus to open the season, the Mounties came to play in the first match of the day and took the opening set over host Bakersfield, 25-22.
After the Renegades evened the match at 1-1 with a 25-17 win, the third set went point-for-point, with the Mounties winning, 28-26.
BC took the fourth set with a 10-point victory, 25-15, to even the match, 2-, setting up a fifth-set tiebreaker.
The fifth set went back and forth before the Renegades pulled away for the three-point set win and the match.
Three Mounties had double-digit kills – JJ Quarrels (17 Kills, 10 Digs, 2 Service aces), Riley DeGroot (14 Ks, 13 Digs, 1 SA) and Allison Whiteman (13 Ks, 4 D, 3 SA).
Ally Euston had a match-high 40 Assists, along with 5 digs, 2 SA and 2 Kills.
SBCC defeats Mt. SAC 23-25, 25-16, 25-20, 24-26, 15-10
Quarles and DeRoot had their best matches of the early season with 23 and 20 putaways, respectively, against LBCC. "JJ (57 attempts) and Riley (46 att.) took a lot of swings on the outside for us and were powerhouses all day," Neely said.
Kylie Rhodes and Alyssa Aleman led with 27 and 21 assists, respectively, for the Mounties, while three players had double figures in digs – Riannel Arevalo (16), Bristol Christelman (12) and DeRoot (10).
Christelman and Arevalo switched off at the Libero position in the two matches.
"Bristol serves as a calm and collected presence on the court and Riannel leads with big energy," Neely added.
Euston, the starting setter, had an injury prior to the start of the LBCC match and Rhodes stepped in for her. "I think she did a great job coming off the bench with confidence and made some good setting decisions," Neely said.
Neely was excited for the progress of the all-freshman lineup and saw great potential.
"This is a competitive group and we always want to take home the win, but we didn't leave empty-handed this weekend," Neely said. "I think the players learned a lot about themselves and about our team in those 10 sets, and they are eager to put in the work at practice to continue improving individually and as a cohesive unit."
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For additional information, please contact the Mt. SAC Sports Information Office at 909.274.4630.