After four hard fought sets of volleyball, the Moorpark Raiders were able to pull out the victory in four sets (25-20, 24-26, 25-22, and 25-18) against the Santa Barbara City College Vaqueros in a battle for Western State Conference supremacy.
The Raiders (13-1, 3-0 WSC) opened the match with the first score by freshman middle blocker Chelcy Westphal, but the first set proved to be a tough, grind-it-out game. The Vaqueros (12-2, 1-1 WSC) had a strong command of the first set early, holding leads of 7-6 and 13-11.
However, the Raiders would show some toughness and resiliency through their amped up defense and precise hitting, going on a 5-0 run to take a 16-13 lead. The Raiders never trailed after this point, and an ace by sophomore middle blocker Rachel Olinyk gave the Raiders the first set 25-20.
The Raiders had trouble executing on the offensive end in the second set, quickly trailing 4-1, but would claw their way back into the set to take a 6-5 lead.
Every time the Raiders would find a way to take the lead, however, the Vaqueros found a way to bounce back.
An all-out battle ensued with each team fighting for each score. Each play derived an emotional response that made the atmosphere electric. Each side out resulted in anger, and each score celebrated with joy.
Despite a hard-fought battle, the Vaqueros proved to be too much for the Raiders, taking the second set 26-24.
The third set proved to be the pivotal set that determined the outcome of the match. The Raiders responded well, jumping to a 5-1 lead, looking as though they had a strong response to the Vaqueros surge. This proved to be a false assumption, as the Vaqueros fought back, and the two one-loss teams battled to take that important third set.
The set would stay close until the Raiders took a commanding 24-22 lead, eventually taking the set 25-22 behind sophomore middle blocker Rachel Olinyk’s two scores and an ace.
The fourth set proved to be where the Raiders would take over offensively and finish off the Vaqueros. The Raiders took a 11-6 lead early in the match, only to see them squander it to the pesky Vaqueros. The Vaqueros had trimmed the lead to a mere two points, and forced the Raiders to continue to fight for each score.
The Raiders countered the Vaquero attack with a 6-2 scoring run down the stretch to take the fourth set 25-18, and the match.
This was a big test for the Raiders considering the Vaqueros were right behind the first-place Raiders in the WSC at second place.
