Corsairs grab a win over the Santa Barbara Vaqueros in a Conference matchup
The Corsairs used great teamwork, good passes and incredible defense to earn another win within the conference.
On Friday, March 24, the Santa Monica College (SMC) Corsairs men's volleyball team played a conference game against the Santa Barbara City College Vaqueros. Coming off of a win against Antelope Valley, the Corsairs were able to sweep the Vaqueros with a 3-0 win.
With great communication on and off the floor, the team opened up the first set with a 7 to 1 run. The Corsairs were able to keep this comfortable score differential by performing great defense. They also capitalized upon several service and attack errors from the opposite team. The Corsairs were able to capture the first set with a 25-17 score. The Corsairs had 8 kills in total throughout the first set, 4 of which were made by outside hitter Kane Schengwel.
In the second set both teams went back and forth. Both squads had some moments on offense that led to the Vaqueros going on a 6 to 2 run. After this, the Corsairs improved and solidified an already great defense. This, along with the opposite team creating more service errors, resulted in another victorious set for The Corsairs with a 25-21 score.
The third set was not as competitive as the previous two, but it was the most exciting out of the three. Around the middle of this set, both teams were close in score. Both the Corsairs and the Vaqueros were having great success with setting and blocking spikes. The Vaqueiros tried using an offensive focused strategy towards the end of the third set. It was not effective enough to overpower the Corsairs defense. The Corsairs came back from a 11-9 score to win the final set with a convincing 25-19 victory.
The middle blocker Jonathan Pritchard reflected postgame, recognizing and praising his teammate Beikwaw Yankey for playing amazing defense.
“Beikwaw’s block, to end of the second set, just credit to Beikwaw for going to a new position that his never played before and performing in such a high level” he said “I play middle too, it is a hard position, you don’t get a lot of credit, it is kind of the behind the scenes work and just to see him get that block” he completed with “it was just the most satisfying thing”.
The libero Javier Castillo talked about how gratifying it is having a winning outcome after their loss against Moorpark College on March 17.
“I am honestly really proud of them cuz we just came off of a bad loss a couple games ago and it was really heartbreaking. We just didn’t play well that day at all and just being able to bounce back in the second round of the conference is really energizing”.
Up next for the Corsairs is their rival, the Long Beach City College Vikings. The Corsairs had a tough time facing them earlier in the season, but the outside hitter Kane Schwengel and the Coach Liran Zamir are very positive about the next game.
“We are not intimidate by anyone, we wanna go there a win and before, before going in there and win just play our best game and with that the result will come, obviously they are the best time in the conference” said Zamir “ We want to compete with the teams that will be there in playoffs and long beach will be one of them so we wanna make sure we are ready for this.”
Schwengel shared “I’m feeling really excited for it, we didn’t do very well the first time we played against them, so it's kind of a redemption game, so I’m super excited to see how that goes.”
The next game is on Wednesday, March 29, against Long Beach City College at 6 pm in Long Beach.
