CBC volleyball fends off Walla Walla in 4 sets

With just five matches remaining in the regular season, the Columbia Basin College volleyball team is on high alert.

The Hawks sit in second place in the East Region at 10-1 after beating Walla Walla Community College 25-23, 25-23, 21-25, 25-22 on Friday night in Pasco, and with North Idaho (9-0) having two matches in hand, they can’t afford any setbacks.

“At this point, it’s not if you are getting into the (NWAC) tournament, but where you are seeded,” said CBC coach Tim Davison, whose team hosts Spokane on Saturday.

WWCC (5-4) is sitting in fourth in the East, and with just the top four teams from each region advancing, the Warriors are in desperate need of wins with Yakima just a game back.

“It’s a bummer,” WWCC coach Chelsie Speer said of the loss. “We had that first set, but we had too many mistakes and lost our confidence. We did a lot better job of shutting her (Jesse Sydney) down. We had a lot more blocks than we did when we played at our place.”

The Warriors still have time to make up ground. They play at Wenatchee Valley on Saturday, then travel to Spokane on Wednesday.

Walla Walla was in control of the first set, leading 15-10 and 18-15. After back-to-back kills by CBC and an unforced error by WWCC, the scored was tied at 18-all.

Taija Rice served four consecutive points for a 23-19 lead, and Sydney later drilled the ball through the Warriors’ defense for the set.

Though the second set score matched the first, the Hawks led from start to finish, but had to hold off a Walla Walla rally at the end. This time, it was Kalameli Matautia with the kill for set point.

The third set was up for grabs early on, but once the Warriors took a 10-9 lead, it was all theirs.

Missed serves and unforced errors hindered the Hawks throughout the set.

“That was a rough game,” Sydney said. “We started to relax because we were up 2-0, then tensed up when we got in a bad situation. We had too many unforced errors. We can’t do that against a good team.”

CBC took care of business in the fourth, taking leads of 13-8 and 19-13. But the Warriors never gave in, pulling with 24-19, and fending off match point with kills by Ashlin Orosco (Pasco) and Lindsey Carpenter. A well-placed tip by Carpenter made it 24-22.

Walla Walla put the ball in the net on match point.

“We beat them at their place, and I’m sure they would have liked revenge tonight,” Sydney said.

Sydney finished with 12 kills and 16 digs on the night, while former Kiona-Benton players Kyrsten Whitmore (14 kills and 4 blocks) and Momo Calzadillas (14 digs) had solid matches.

“Jesse is a real talent that is getting better and better,” Davison said. “We want to have those local girls. I would love to have more local talent on this team. We had quite the crowd tonight, and the local players help with that.”

Ocean Bryan led the Warriors with 17 kills, while Carpenter had 15 kills and 15 digs. Orosco chipped in six kills and six digs.

“Ocean is just a freshman, and she has done a good job,” Speer said. “She lacked confidence early on, but she has really stepped up. Ashlin tore her ACL last year, but she has come back from that and played really well for us.”

Kamiakin grad Amanda Miller sets kills record at EOU

Amanda Miller set the career kills record for Eastern Oregon University on Friday night as the Mountaineers rallied to beat Warner Pacific in five sets in Cascade Collegiate Conference action in Portland.

Miller, a senior, passed previous record holder Grace Deboodt (2006-09). Miller finished with 10 kills on the night and has 1,270 for her career.

This story was originally published October 13, 2017 at 11:21 PM with the headline "CBC volleyball fends off Walla Walla in 4 sets."