Street Fight

Glendora, CA -- Headed into Monday night's Western State Conference South Division match-up with visiting Antelope Valley College, the Citrus College Volleyball team knew that they wouldn't have an easy time with the new conference member. It's highly unlikely though that they thought they were getting into an old fashioned street fight that they found themselves in, as the Marauders gave Citrus all they could handle in a match that was much closer than Citrus' straight set sweep indicated.

It started from the get go. Neither team separated themselves from the other in that first set. Antelope's largest lead would be three points at 9-6, but the Owls answered with three straight on kills from freshmen Danielle Hundley and Cassandra Freitag and an ace from sophomore Kiyhanna Dade. Midway through, Citrus would break a 15-15 tie after back to back kills from sophomore Kayla Eddings and a Marauder attack error. The Owls never trailed from that point forward in the set, but never led by more than three. The match was ultimately decided after sophomore Ana Bui notched her fifth kill of the set to make it 25-22.

In the second set, Citrus tried to distance themselves early using a small 3-0 run that feature a kill from Bui sandwich by service and attack errors by Antelope Valley. That 5-2 lead didn't last long as Antelope tied the game up at five, then eight and nine points all. Tied at 9-9, Citrus embarked on a 7-0 run that saw Freitag contribute a kill, Hundley a pair of them, and Dade two aces. That 16-9 lead though, evaporated quickly as the Marauders scored 8 of the next 9 points to draw even at 17 all.

The second set would remain close through it's entirety with the Marauders take one point leads three different times very late. Trailing 23-22, Head Coach Shin Jung called a timeout and rallied his troops. Citrus went on to score the next three points, getting a kill from Freitag, a block assist from Freitag and sophomore Kimberly Nevarez, and then an AVC error to close it out 25-23.

The third set would have the same back and forth nature of the first two. This time it was Citrus that would hold small one point leads late. The Owls had four match points before they were finally able to put the game away for good on a kill by Bui 28-26.

In the win, Bui led the Owls with a team high 13 kills and a match high 14 digs. Eddings and Freitag added 12 and 11 kills respectively, while Dade posted a match high three aces to go along with nine digs. Sophomore setter Amanda Stone rounded things out with a match high 35 assists.

With the win, Citrus improves to 10-7 overall and 4-2 in WSC South play. The win puts the Owls in sole possession of second place in the WSC South, a game behind College of the Canyons and Bakersfield College who are both tied for first. The Owls will resume conference play this Wednesday as they start the second half of conference contests at West Los Angeles College. The match is set for a 6:00 PM start.