Samantha Potter registered 22 kills and the Santa Barbara City College women’s volleyball team rallied from a 9-6 deficit in game five to hand Cuesta a 25-21, 25-22, 21-25, 17-25, 15-12 defeat on Tuesday night.
“Considering that we’re mostly freshmen and we’ve had time to play with each other, we’re really starting to connect,” Potter said. “Our passing has really improved.”
It was the third straight win and fifth in six matches for the Vaqueros (6-9, 4-1 WSC). Cuesta falls to 7-7 and 3-2.
Jessica Tune added 11 kills, Maria Mayer had 10 and Angelica Smith contributed seven putaways. Vanessa Shaw, the libero, notched 30 digs.
After trailing 9-6 in game five, SBCC ended the match on a 9-3 run. Smith had a pair of spikes in the middle to cut the deficit to one, and Shaw gave the home team the lead on back-to-back ace serves.
“The connection between Angelica Smith and (setter) Amelia Shugrue was just amazing,” SBCC coach Ed Gover said. “Those were two great powerful hits, and it opened up everything else. We got some confidence after beating Ventura (last Friday). They didn’t quit tonight and they believed in themselves.”
Gover flipped his lineup in game five to give the Cougars a different look. “That opened up new things for us,” he said.
Dave Loveton is Santa Barbara City College‘s sports information director.