That Homey Feeling

Glendora, CA -- Whenever Citrus College and Bakersfield College meet up on the volleyball court, you're guaranteed at least one thing, that the match will be competitive. As of late the other thing you can pretty much count on is that the home team will win, as it has now happened in six consecutive matches between the Owls and the Renegades after Citrus' four set victory over Bakersfield on Friday.

The match was back and forth from the get go, in a match that saw 28 ties and 13 lead changes in total. The first set was no different as Bakersfield jumped out to a 5-3 lead, before watching the Owls use a 7-1 run to take a 10-6 lead after a kill by sophomore Kyla White. Citrus wouldn't relinquish the lead the rest of the way, but the Renegades would tie it up twice late, before a kill be freshman setter Kristen Fox sealed the deal 25-20.

The second set was even tighter than the first as 12 of the 28 total ties occurred in that frame. Citrus surged to an early 5-1 advantage, but Bakersfield rallied to go back up 10-7. The Owls retaliated with a 6-1 run capped by a kill from sophomore Cassandra Freitag and never again surrendered the lead. That didn't mean it wouldn't be close though as it took a service error and an attack error by the Renegades to close the set to give Citrus the 25-23 victory.

By the time the third set rolled around, Citrus looked like momentum had fully swung their way. Bakersfield held a small early lead, that the Owls took over midway through thanks in large part to three aces in four points from Freitag. Leading 22-19 though, the wheels came off for Citrus as Bakersfield closed on a 7-2 run that saw the Owls commit four attack errors on the way to a 24-26 loss.

Things could have continued to go downhill from there, and for awhile it looked like it might as Bakersfield went up 5-1 early. The Owls settled in though and slowly worked their way back into the game scoring seven unanswered to take an 8-5 lead after a kill from freshman Samantha Jape. The Renegades took the lead back for a short time midway through 12-10, but Citrus had another big run in them, scoring five straight points. From that point forward it was all Citrus as they went on to win 25-19.

In the win, White led the way with a match high 17 kills and a match high 18 digs. Freitag added 16 kills and five aces, while Jape had five kills and parts of seven total blocks. Fox rounded out the match highs as she handed out a match high 42 assists.

With the win, Citrus improves to 8-13 overall and 5-5 in WSC South play. The Owls to Antelope Valley on Friday to play the Marauders at 6:00 PM.