The Santa Barbara City College Men’s Volleyball team defeated El Camino College at the ECC Gym Complex on Friday, March 8, in a 3-1 win, making it the Warriors’ second loss of the week.
The El Camino College Warriors started neck-and-neck against the Santa Barbara City College Vaqueros in the first period, with the Vaqueros scoring the first point of the game followed by the Warriors scoring their first point a few seconds later.
After the Vaqueros scored three points and the Warriors were still at one point, Warriors coach Casey Wood decided to call a timeout to talk to the team about a game plan.
This is Wood’s first season as the Warriors’ coach, after being hired in August 2023.
After talking with Wood, the Warriors shifted to a more defensive game plan and started to rack up more points against the Vaqueros.
During the first set, the Vaqueros had a few of its serves hit the net, giving a point to the Warriors each time. After a close finish, it ended with a win for the Warriors with a score of 26-24.
The second set began with more energy and fierceness from both teams. Some plays lasted longer, with both teams hitting the ball back and forth and no one scoring for 20 seconds.
Despite the impressive defense stands from both teams, the second period went to the Vaqueros with a score of 25-23.
It was in the third period that the game momentum shifted in favor of the Vaqueros despite aggressive defense and blocking from the Warriors.
In the first few minutes, the Vaqueros scored eight points while the Warriors failed to score and block some of the Vaqueros’ spikes.
Bridget Kulesh, the Vaqueros’ coach, began noticing a shift in the third period.
“After we got our volleyball serves honed in, it was in the third period that our energy was better, we felt more confident, and we turned around the game,” Kulesh said.
As the game began shifting in the Vaqueros’ favor, their players started chanting to the Warriors whenever El Camino players either failed to stop the ball or their serve went into the net.
One of the recurring taunts was, “You can’t do that!”
This added to the competitive and aggressive energy of the game that helped the Vaqueros keep up their momentum.
After the Vaqueros dominated the third period with a score of 29-9, the Warriors needed a strong fourth period to keep themselves in the game.
The Warriors tried to bring more energy to the final period. At times they were only two points behind the Vaqueros, having the chance to catch up and win the period.
Despite plenty of blocking and defense from the Warriors, the Vaqueros were able to pull away and win the last period 25-21.
“I want to improve on everything after this game because we lost some energy and did a lot better in our last home game,” Gunner Welch, 22, outside hitter for the Warriors, said.
Many of the Warriors echoed observations about improving communication with each other and passing, including Bishop Sneed, 18, an outside hitter for the Warriors who was recently named Chick-fil-A Gardena Men’s Athlete of the Week.
The Vaqueros’ last game was against Santa Monica, with a loss of 3-2.
“In our last game we had a lot of our players injured and this week we had to make some adjustments for this game, but we came in confident and turned around this game,” Kulesh said.
Winning three of the four sets, the Vaqueros got their first win since Feb. 14, after riding a four-game losing streak.
Team captain for the Vaqueros Cole Richards, said, “We started out slow and El Camino did a good job fighting us, but we were able to bring more energy and turn around the game,”
Next Game
El Camino vs Long Beach
@ Long Beach City College
March 13, 6 p.m.
