Lady Corsairs send Wildcats home empty-handed

The Lady Corsair volleyball team defeated West Los Angeles on Tuesday, October 5th in a contest that would see the girls of Santa Monica College break out the broomsticks in a full sweep of the Wildcats.

The Corsairs won the opening set by a score of 25-14 and won the next two sets by identical scores of 25-10, sealing a perfect 3-0 match win.

Freshmen Amelia Keeling and Kelsey Kiel led the way for SMC in the first set with several kills each, and balanced out their attack with blocks on defense.

The Wildcats' head coach Brian Corso was forced to call his first timeout when his team was being victimized by a score of 15-4 in the first game.

"Remember, we've got to step up," said Coach Corso to his team.

The Wildcats responded with a couple of kills that decreased the deficit, but it wasn't enough to beat out the Corsairs who took the first set 25-14.

However, head coach Nicole Ryan wasn't too happy with the first set, as she knew that the girls weren't playing as well as they could.

"Talk to each other," said Coach Ryan. "Get it done."

The Corsairs opened up the second set aggressively with some well-placed serves from Kiel and kills from freshman Meagan Hauser.

The Wildcats, however, would not go down so easily, and also punished Santa Monica with some good hits, evening the score at 5-5.

Taking a hint from the coach, the Corsairs started to communicate better; the team started to play cohesively and surged to create a gap in the score, propelling them to a 25-10 second game win.

Eventually the Corsairs started to exemplify their still-growing maturity by getting reckless. Coach Ryan had to call another timeout at the beginning of the third set as the team was giving too many points away off of missed serves and balls hit out of play.

"We are not sending free balls," said Ryan. "You can't give up ten points," she said, commenting on the lack of fundamental composure from SMC throughout.

The Corsairs would eventually straighten out and wouldn't allow the Wildcats to score another point for the rest of the set, defeating them soundly at 25-10.

Still, Coach Ryan didn't seem satisfied and stressed that they were playing too softly. "You are too nice," she said. "And some of you, we need to break you down."

Even the players did not seem happy with the lopsided win, as they knew that their adversaries weren't the best team out there. "It was a good win," said Hauser. "But we could've played much better."

Look for the club to take some names as they attempt to carry their newfound momentum deep into conference play. Next on the docket are the Citrus Owls at home on Tuesday, Oct. 19th.