Anderson guides Vaqueros into Regional finals

Jasmine Ward led the
Vaqueros with 17 kills.
Photo by Ken Sciallo

Jenna Anderson drilled 15 kills with 18 digs and six blocks on Saturday night as No. 4 SBCC survived a tough battle with No. 12 Pasadena to post a 3-2 victory in the second round of the Southern Cal Regional women’s volleyball playoffs.

Jasmine Ward had 17 kills and Madison Waddell added 14 in the 19-25, 25-19, 25-19, 27-29, 15-13 triumph that lasted 2 hours and 10 minutes at the Sports Pavilion. It was the 12th straight win for the Vaqueros (19-7), who moved into the Regional Finals on Tuesday at No. 1 seed Irvine Valley.

“I’m happy with the way we finished every game strong,” said Anderson, a 5-11 sophomore from Lake Forest, Calif. “They fought hard, we just fought harder. We wanted it more.”

Noralia To’omalatai led the Lancers (15-10) with 25 kills and 16 digs.

Kristy Kearney had 11 kills and hit .300 for Santa Barbara. Fellow middle hitter Taylor Badois added seven kills and six blocks, including two solo.

Setter Madelon Leiphardt had season highs with 61 assists and a team-best 25 digs. Eryn Young added 20 digs and Lara Bangs 17. Jane Petricka had three aces.

Pasadena, which lost to the Vaqueros 3-0 early in the year, jumped ahead 20-10 in the opening set. Ari Garner came in at setter and led a 9-2 charge that pulled the Vaqueros within three at 22-19. Briana Hilton had a kill and a block to cap Pasadena’s 25-19 win.

Santa Barbara built leads of 6-2, 12-6 and 19-11 in the second set behind strong play from Anderson and Kearney. The third set was tight early with eight ties in the first 18 points. The home team broke away on an ace by Petricka, a kill by Anderson, a Pasadena error, a sharp-angle spike by Ward and a block by Ward and Badois that made it 20-14. A booming kill by Waddell and a Kearney block ended the set in SBCC’s favor, 25-19.

“It was a great college match, both teams battled their hearts out,” said coach Ed Gover. “Nora (on Pasadena) is very, very smart with her shot selection and the precision of her shots. Not too many have a great roll shot like hers.

“They played great defense and so did we. I saw some crazy digs tonight.”

The fourth set was a back-and-forth affair with 21 ties and lots of lead changes. The Vaqueros got to match point twice at 24-23 and 25-24 but couldn’t finish the deal. To’omalatai finally ended the 29-27 marathon with an ace serve.

SBCC jumped up 6-3 in the fifth and deciding set when a kill by Ward ended the longest and most exciting rally of the night. After making the side change with an 8-7 advantage, the Vaqueros rolled off four straight points to make it 12-7.

The Lancers came back to cut it to one at 13-12 before the Vaqueros ended it on a block by Anderson and Badois, followed shortly by a tip from Anderson that went backward off a Lancer defender.

“I saw the block up and I thought ‘I’m just going to keep this ball in play,’ “ said Anderson, of her match-winning shot. “The line digger was back and I hadn’t done that throughout the match. I just said, ‘Let’s see what happens.’ “

What happened was the tip shot secured a thrilling 3-2 victory and the Vaqueros’ first trip to the Regional Finals since the format changed from eight teams in the State Finals to four a few years ago.

The winner of Tuesday’s match will advance to the State Finals on Dec. 7-8 at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, along with the other So Cal winner. No. 2 Grossmont will host No. 3 Golden West on Tuesday.

Vaqueros top Citrus 3-1 in Regional opener

Jenna Anderson had 12 kills,
14 digs and 3 aces in Tuesday's
3-1 Regional victory.
Photo by Ken Sciallo

Madison Waddell had 14 kills and Jenna Anderson had a double-double with 12 kills and 14 digs on Tuesday night as SBCC opened the Southern Cal Regional women’s volleyball playoffs with a 3-1 win over Citrus. The scores were 25-22, 25-21, 22-25, 25-15.

It was the 11th straight win for the No. 4-seeded Vaqueros (18-7). No. 13 Citrus, which finishes at 14-10, got a match-high 21 kills from Danielle Hundley.

“It was a really good game, I liked the energy,” said Waddell. “It was definitely a battle, we were so close. We pulled through and got sideouts when we needed them.

“Conference was a little bit slow and coming to the playoffs, we were so excited and energized. It’s do-or-die in the playoffs and if you lose, you go home. The energy was way higher tonight.”

The Vaqueros will host No. 12 Pasadena, which went to No. 5 San Diego Mesa and surprised the Olympians 3-0. The second-round match is set for Saturday at 6 p.m.

Waddell hit .343 and Anderson finished at .333 to go along with three ace serves. Jasmine Ward added 11 kills, including the match-clincher to the back line. Taylor Badois had five kills and eight blocks, including two solo.

Olenka Tuleja had 13 digs, libero Eryn Young 12 and setter Madelon Leiphardt, a freshman from Dos Pueblos High, had eight.

“Madelon moves the ball around so well and she’s able to find our hitters in open spots,” said coach Ed Gover. “And Ari Garner was great tonight, coming in and making some great passes late in the match.”

There were 13 ties in the first set before the Vaqueros pulled away late on two kills by Waddell and an ace and kill from Anderson. The second set was equally tight with the Vaqueros leading by three on a few occasions. They won the set 25-21 with a 6-2 closing run.

The Owls overcame a late three-point deficit in the third set and won it with a 9-3 closing burst that produced a 25-22 win.

SBCC bolted to leads of 5-1, 7-2 and 14-7 in the third set. After Citrus cut the lead to six points at 17-11, Waddell reeled off three straight kills to make it 20-11.

“In the playoffs, every team is good and Citrus had quite a few weapons,” said Gover. Their No. 6 had 21 kills and we pretty much couldn’t stop her. When she got in the back row, we tended to score more points, so we had to be patient as she went through the front.

“Our patience level was high today.”

Pasadena (15-9) has knocked the Vaqueros out of the playoffs in two of the last three seasons.

“They have an extremely good player and two good outside hitters,” Gover noted. “We played them early in the season (Sept. 13) and got them in 3 but right now they are peaking. That was a big win down at San Diego Mesa.”

Vaqueros seeded 4th in Regional, will host Citrus

SBCC was seeded fourth for the Southern Cal Women’s Volleyball Regional and will host No. 13 Citrus on Tuesday at 6 p.m.

The Vaqueros, co-champs in the WSC North at 11-1, are making their fifth straight Regional appearance. They won their last 10 matches to finish the regular season at 17-7. Seven of those wins have been sweeps and they’re 30-3 in sets during the win streak.

Citrus (14-9) finished third in the WSC South with an 8-4 record. The Owls have won seven of their last nine matches.

Irvine Valley (20-0) was the No. 1 seed, followed by Grossmont and Golden West.

Vaqueros sweep to claim 4th WSC North title in 5 years

Madison Waddell and Jenna Anderson led a balanced attack with eight kills apiece on Wednesday night, guiding No. 7 SBCC to a 3-0 women’s volleyball win over L.A. Mission in its final regular-season match at the Sports Pavilion. The scores were 25-9, 25-16, 25-13.

Jenna Anderson, left, makes a block
with help from Megan Lunger .
Photo by Ken Sciallo

It was the 10^th straight win for SBCC (17-7, 11-1) and secured its fourth WSC North title in the last five years. Santa Barbara will share the title with L.A. Pierce. The Vaqueros are 49-5 in WSC action over the past five seasons.

Waddell, one of six players honored on “Sophomore Night,” hit a sizzling .615. Kristy Kearney added six kills and Jasmine Ward had five.

Eryn Young served 11 straight points, including three aces, as the Vaqueros built a 12-2 lead in the first set.

Eryn Young had 3 aces and served
11 straight points in the 1st set.
Photo by Ken Sciallo

“It’s always fun to honor the girls who gave two years to City College and bless their hearts, they’re such great kids,” said coach Ed Gover. “If you look at their body of work, they’ve won two conference titles and they’re 21-1 the last two years. That’s pretty impressive.”

Ari Garner was the setter for the first two sets and Madelon Leiphardt set the third. The Vaqueros broke open a close second set with a 10-4 burst that made it 19-12. They enjoyed leads of 7-2, 15-6 and 22-11 in the third set.

Jane Petricka had nine digs and three aces while Lara Bangs added six digs and four aces.

“Tonight was all about playing for each other and finishing our last league game strong,” said Garner, a 5-6 sophomore from Carmichael, Calif. “We’re excited about opening the playoffs at home next week.

“We’ve got some good momentum going, we just need to come out and play like we have been the last few weeks. It’s a little sad, thinking that my last home volleyball match is coming soon but this was a fun way to end the regular season.”  

The Vaqueros, ranked No. 4 in Southern Cal, will open the playoffs on Tuesday, Nov. 26 with a likely home match. The pairings will be announced on Sunday.

Waddell, Young fuel 3-1 win over Ventura

Madison Waddell had 14 kills on Friday night and Eryn Young made 16 digs, leading No. 7 SBCC to a 3-1 women’s volleyball win at Ventura. The scores were 25-12, 24-26, 25-10, 25-20.

Taylor Badois added 12 kills and hit .478 for the Vaqueros (16-7, 10-1), who extended their win streak to nine and remained in a first-place tie atop the WSC North with L.A. Pierce. Ventura fell to 2-21 and 0-12.

Jenna Anderson had 10 kills and 12 digs and Jasmine Ward also had 10 kills. Madelon Leiphardt contributed 15 digs, 38 assists and two aces. Jane Petricka had three aces.

"We played without Kristy Kearney, who had food poisoning, and Taylor and Megan Lunger did a nice job of filling in,” said coach Ed Gover. “Madelon did a good job of moving the ball around to our main hitters.

“Eryn Young had 16 digs and her passing was nearly flawless. She’s our steady rock out there. Sometimes the liberos go unnoticed but she’s a big reason why we’ve been successful this year.”

The Vaqueros complete the regular season on Wednesday when L.A. Mission visits the Sports Pavilion for a 6 p.m. match.

Anderson sparks eighth straight win

Jenna Anderson had 10 kills with a .421hitting percentage and delivered three aces in the opening set as No. 7 SBCC swept Moorpark 3-0 in a WSC North women’s volleyball match at the Sports Pavilion.





Jenna Anderson had 10 kills for the match
and three aces in the opening set.

SBCC won its eighth straight, 25-16, 25-21, 25-15 and six of those were sweeps. The Vaqueros (15-7, 9-1) are ranked No. 7 in the state and tied for first with L.A. Pierce with two matches remaining.

Santa Barbara enjoyed early leads in all three sets against the Raiders (9-9, 4-5). They led 9-3 in the first set, 10-4 in the second and 8-1 in the third.

Jasmine Ward had nine kills, Madison Waddell seven and Kristy Kearney six. Eryn Young led in digs with 13 and Lara Bangs and Olenka Tuleja had seven apiece.

“We’re preparing for the playoffs, so we wanted to bring all that energy and play as hard as we can,” said Waddell. “We had a lot of runs with our serving and we did a good job of siding out in the first and third games.”

Moorpark used an 11-5 run to pull even at 15 in the second set. It was tied three more times before Megan Lunger untied it for good with a kill that made it 20-19. A Moorpark error and an ace serve by Madelon Leiphardt stretched the lead to three points.

Leiphardt had 23 assists and three aces.

“She did an excellent job of distributing the ball,” said coach Ed Gover. “We came out very relaxed and our passing kept us in a steady rhythm. They tied us in the second set but we were never worried about it because of our ball control. We did a good job of getting the ball to our setters.

“The win streak has helped build our confidence. We’re taking them one at a time and trying not to look ahead.”

The Vaqueros have a bye on Wednesday, then travel to Ventura on Friday, Nov. 15, starting at 7 p.m.

Vaqueros sweep Hancock for seventh straight win

Jasmine Ward and Rachel Bower had seven kills apiece on Wednesday night as No. 7 SBCC swept past Hancock 25-15, 25-12, 25-21 in a WSC North women’s volleyball match in Santa Maria.

Eryn Young had 12 digs and three aces. Lara Bangs added nine digs for the Vaqueros, who won their seventh straight match to improve to 14-7 overall and 8-1 in conference. It was the fifth sweep in the last seven matches for the Vaqueros, who are 21-2 in sets during the win streak.

SBCC and L.A. Pierce are tied for first with three matches remaining.

“Hancock is a scrappy team but we were way more physical,” said assistant coach Lisa Gera. “Maddie Waddell had some good service runs and played great D in the back. She showed a lot of tenacity.”

The Vaqueros will host Moorpark on Friday at 6 p.m.

No. 10 Vaqueros stun No. 8 Pierce 3-1, move into first place

Kristy Kearney pounded a season-high 16 kills and hit .625 on Friday night as SBCC surprised No. 8 L.A. Pierce 3-1 in a key WSC North women’s volleyball match in Woodland Hills. The scores were 25-12, 22-25, 25-21, 25-12.

Freshman MB Kristy Kearney had a season-high 16 kills
in a 3-1 win that vaulted SBCC into first place.

Madison Waddell added 11 kills and Jenna Anderson had a superb all-around match with 10 kills, 17 digs, 6 block assists and 6 aces. Lara Bangs added 10 digs and Maddie Leiphardt had 37 assists and nine digs.

It was a huge triumph for the No. 10 Vaqueros, who extended their win streak to six games and handed Pierce its first WSC loss. The Vaqueros moved into a first-place tie with Pierce at 7-1. SBCC (13-7) avenged its only WSC setback this year – a 3-1 decision to the Brahmas on Oct. 9.

Pierce (14-10), the three-time defending state champion, had its 10-match win streak snapped and was held to a season-low 12 points in the first and fourth sets. The Brahmas hit just .070 for the match.

“We were solid from start to finish,” said SBCC coach Ed Gover. “We had a great game plan and our team executed it very well.

“They could not stop Kristy, she was a force to be reckoned with.”

The Vaqueros travel to Santa Maria on Wednesday to take on Hancock at 6 p.m.