The Moorpark College Men’s Volleyball team has won four games in a row following the defeat of the Golden West College Rustlers with a 3-1 victory on Wednesday night. The Raiders came into the game riding high, with a record of 3-0 after sweeping both Fullerton and Grossmont College.
Although Golden West came into the game with a record of 2-2, the player’s performance told a different story. In the four sets that were played, Golden West scored over 19 points each set, which is the most any team has scored that Moorpark has faced off against.
Outside hitters for Golden West, Mike Sofley and Nathan Goode, scored more kills than any other players in the game. Sofley finished with 22 kills and Goode with 19, combining for 41 kills, more than half of what the entire Golden West team scored.
“Golden West is probably the best team that we faced up to this point and we knew that they were gonna dig us to death and play us really well,” sophomore outside hitter, Austin McIntyre sya.
In the first set, the Raiders fell behind 11-16, but came back with help from freshman middle blocker Shawn Krantz and sophomore outside hitter Ryan Horan. Both players prevented further large deficits from happening again.
Horan earned three solo blocks and 11 kills. Krantz finished with six blocks in the game, also scoring the most kills at 16 by the end of the night.
“Shawn Krantz was very good at the net with blocking and hitting and was a difference-maker in the game,” Head Coach Aaron Hedland said.
The whole first set was pretty even with the Raiders winning 27-25 after sophomore outside hitter Gurpreet Ghotra scored the winning point. Ghotra finished the game with five digs and 10 kills giving himself a total of 41 kills on the season so far.
The Raiders dominated set two when they won 25-19 after a bad serve from Golden West. It was set three where the Rustlers finally overcame the Raider offense and won 30-28. The Raiders picked up the victory after beating Golden West 25-22 in the final set of the game.
Freshman outside hitter Ray Parra-Lopez was satisfied with the Raiders victory. He finished with nine kills.
“Overall a good job. A little sloppy at some points but we did a good job at pulling it together when it really mattered,” Parra-Lopez said.
Coach Hedland also gave his thoughts on the game.
“It wasn’t our best performance, but we did good things when we needed to,” Hedland said.
The Moorpark Raiders will look to continue their winning streak with the upcoming two road games. The first game will be against Santiago Canyon College on Feb. 13 and then on Feb. 18 the Raiders will take on Santa Monica College. Both games will start at 6 p.m.
The Raiders look to return home victorious on Feb. 19 to face-off against Irvine Valley College at 6 p.m.
