The Santa Barbara City College Women’s Volleyball team began their season with a split at the Bakersfield Quad, sweeping Mt. San Antonio (25-19, 25-21, 25-21) before dropping the second match to San Diego Miramar (25-23, 25-20, 25-14).
“We’re excited about the future,” Head Coach Kat Niksto said, “but there’s lots of work to do.”
The Vaqueros handled Mt. San Antonio in three comfortable sets to overcome any first-match jitters.
Despite it being only a three-set match, newcomer Aubrielle LaPointe was two digs away from a double-double; she had 11 kills, eight digs, two blocks, and an ace. Middle blocker Osby Judd-Wade served four aces, and Morgane Breault led the team with 11 digs as a substitute.
In the afternoon match against Miramar, the Vaqueros had difficulty against an experienced lineup. After getting out to an early lead in the first set, they ultimately fell 25-23.
With only two players from last year’s squad on the court, Santa Barbara struggled with consistency in the next two sets. However, now is the time to build chemistry, and Niksto still took away positives despite the loss.
“We saw snippets of high-level play showing we can compete with the highest level of playoff teams,” she said.
Tiara Wortham had a whopping seven total blocks. LaPointe and Mya Pinkert each had seven digs. Isabella Lopez-Gonzalez had six digs—equaling her first-match total.
The Vaqueros look ahead to the Hartnell Tri on Friday before returning home to host the SBCC Tri on Saturday at Robertson Gym.