Full Strength Owls Fall In Five

Glendora, CA -- The Citrus College Volleyball team was finally at full strength for the first time in three weeks on Wednesday night when they opened up Western State Conference South Division play. The Owls went toe to toe with WSC South favorite and State #19 College of the Canyons, but ultimately fell in five.

Game #1 started out with a bang, as the two schools traded blows back and forth. In the first set along, the score would be tied up a total of 16 times, and the lead would change hands on nine different occasions. The ninth and final time would come at the end of the set, when Citrus rallied from down 27-28, to defeat the Cougars 30-28 in the first set. Sophomore Cassandra Freitag played a big role in all that, scoring the go ahead point with via a kill, and then coming up with an assist block along side sophomore Alyssa Tarango for the set winner.

Citrus fell flat in the second set though as the Cougars stretched out to a four point lead early, and then used an 11-4 run midway through en route to a 25-15 victory. The second set was the set in which the Owls struggled the most hitting a match worst -.122 as a team, getting just five kills while committing 10 errors.

In the third set, Citrus look headed for a similar fate, as Canyons led 10-4 early on. The Owls finally began to figure things out though, and then used a 8-2 run to pull even with College of the Canyons 12-12. The Cougars would pull back out in front 18-14, but Citrus again rallied closing the gap and tying the game up at 18-18. Canyons again pulled back out in front, going up 23-20, but the Owls closed the set on a 5-0 run, getting a kill from sophomore Kyla White, an ace from sophomore Kaylee Johnson, and a block from Freitag on the way to a 25-23 win.

Much like the second set, Citrus again lost all momentum in the fourth, as Canyons led 10-5 early on. The Owls would pull to within two at 14-12 after a kill from White, but the Cougars responded with a 5-1 run. Citrus would get their deficit down to four at 22-18, but Canyons closed the set with back to back kills and an ace to force a fifth set after a 25-18 win. In the fifth, Canyons would score the first three points and never really look back. The Owls would never really trail by less than four points, as the Cougars clinched the match with a 15-9 victory.

In the loss, Citrus was led by White's team high 15 kills and team high 21 digs. Freitag added 13 and four total blocks, while freshman LeAna D'Aquila had a season high seven kills. Freshman Kristen Fox rounded out the superlatives with 38 assists.

With the loss, Citrus drops to 3-9 overall and 0-1 in WSC South play. The Owls will try and get things back on track on Friday when they host Glendale College at 6:00 PM.