Wednesday, the Moorpark College Men’s Volleyball team faced Irvine Valley in a hard-fought match that lasted to the fifth set. Irvine Valley won 3-2 and ended the Raider’s 6-0 win streak.
The Irvine Valley Lasers came into the game with an overall record of 2-5 after losing to San Diego Miramar. In that game, sophomore outside hitters Demetre Gossett and Max Wise had a good game against San Diego. Gossett had 12 kills and five digs while Wise had 10 kills and six digs.
“We got to keep our heads up and we needed a loss because it will teach us how to come back for our next game,” freshman setter Nathan Mar expressed.
Prior to the game, Moorpark defeated Santa Monica College 3-0 where sophomore outside hitter Ryan Horan was able to get 15 kills and two digs. Freshman outside hitter Ray Parra-Lopez had seven kills and two digs.
Heading into Wednesday night’s match, it seemed as if the Raiders carried the momentum.
In the first set, Irvine dominated the court. They took the lead by four points for a moment, but after a second timeout, the Raiders made a comeback to eventually win the first set 25-23.
In the second and third set, Irvine once again showed dominance over the Raiders. This time, Irvine did not let the Raiders make a comeback. The Lasers’ defense prevented the Raiders from scoring beyond 18 points in set two and 19 points in set three.
In set four the Raiders were able to make a comeback and won 27-25. Players from both teams threw themselves on the ground to prevent the ball from hitting the floor. The crowd was on fire, roaring every time the Raiders scored. The Raiders were able to win set four following sophomore outside hitter Gurpreet Ghotra’s score for the winning point.
In the final set, the Irvine Valley Lasers came out on top winning the set 15-10 after the ball was spiked by a Laser player and bounced off Parra-Lopez to end the Raiders’ six-game winning streak.
When asked if there was added pressure to keep the Raider’s win streak alive, assistant coach Eric Valdivia answered earnestly.
“There was no pressure on us we knew what we had to do, we had a game plan ready and it just didn’t work out today,” Valdivia said.
Horan was the top scorer for the Raiders, finishing the game with 12 kills and behind him with 11 kills was Parra Lopez and freshman middle blocker Shawn Krantz.
Head Coach Aaron Hedland spoke about the loss and the Raiders overall performance.
“We played a good team that put up a good fight and played good defense against us. We did not play well enough to beat a good team and we beat ourselves,” Hedland said.
The Raiders next two games are away, first will be Santa Barbara City College on Feb. 26 and following they will face Long Beach City College on Feb. 28. Both games start at 6 p.m.
The Raiders will return home to face El Camino College on Mar. 4 at 6 p.m.
