Cerro Coso cruised to a dominant 3-0 win (25-7, 25-11, 25-12) over West Coast Baptist on Friday night in Ridgecrest. The Coyotes controlled all aspects of the game, with strong serving, solid defense, and efficient offense.
Brooke Murphy led with 6 kills and a service ace, while Lexi Higer added 3 kills and 2 blocks. Emma Gonzalez served up 3 aces, and both Kori Phillips and Seliah "CC" Smith notched 8 digs each.
The Coyotes totaled 5 aces, 8 team blocks, and held the opposition to just 30 points across three sets.
Up Next: Cerro Coso opens IEAC conference play at home against College of the Desert on Wednesday, October 1 at 6 PM.
Eduardo Miranda
The Daily Independent
Cerro Coso volleyball hosted West Coast Baptist College in the final non-conference home game of the season. The Coyotes entered the match after competing in the Porterville Tri, where they defeated both Porterville and Merced in four sets.
Riding their current winning streak, the Coyotes continued their strong play to sweep the Eagles 25-7, 25-11, and 25-12.
Head coach James Belluscio said on the team's performance, "it was a good match; looking forward to playing them again on Tuesday. I would say I'm excited about how the team is coming along as that's three in a row, learning not only how to win but learning how to sweep, which is important at this part of the season."
Cerro Coso's attack finished with 26 kills from 61 attempts and had only eight errors. Kori Phillips led the Coyotes with 10 kills from 20 attempts, Brooke Murphy had six kills from 20 attempts, and Carlie Kramer and Lexi Higer each had three kills from six attempts each. They also had 27 assists with Isabella Chavez leading the way with 18.
The Coyotes' serving finished with 13 aces but had 11 serving errors. Chavez led the team with six aces, while Seliah Smith and Emma Gonzalez both had three.
Defensively, Cerro Coso finished with 26 digs and only committed two receiving errors. Smith and Phillips led the team with eight digs each. The Coyotes finished with two solo blocks, eight block assists, and only one blocking error. Kramer had both of the team's solo blocks and three block assists.
The first set began with the visitors serving and the Coyotes scored on a Kramer kill. That brought up Chavez to serve, where she scored five points with an ace and a block from Kramer. Murphy and Gonzalez each scored three points during their serve, with Gonzalez scoring two aces for a 13-4 lead. With a 17-6 lead, Smith went up to serve, where she scored five points with an ace for a 22-7 lead. The final three points were scored by a Murphy kill and back-to-back aces from Chavez.
The second set began with Chavez scoring five points with two aces for a 5-1 lead. Smith extended the lead after scoring three points during her serve with an ace to make it 10-3. After both teams traded kills, Chavez hit two straight aces for a 17-8 lead. Brylie Welch continued the strong serving, pushing the lead to 21-9 with a kill and block from Jiana Alcaraz-Carter. A Phillips kill and an ace from Smith helped secure a 25-11 set win.
In the final set, Charlene Munoz opened the scoring with a kill for the home team as Belluscio changed the lineup. The two teams traded points, with the set tied at 2-2 until Munoz gave the Coyotes a 5-3 lead with her serve that included an ace. But the Eagles kept the set close, with kills from Phillips and Higer giving the Coyotes an 11-6 lead before the visitors cut the lead to a point, 13-12.
But that was the closest the Eagles got to the Coyotes, with the home team going on a 12-0 run. The run began with a kill from Murphy and a block from Kramer, then an ace from Munoz for a 17-12 lead. Phillips scored two kills, Murphy got a kill, and Kramer got a kill and a block for a 23-12 lead. After West Coast was unable to continue a drive, the Coyotes secured the sweep with a kill from Murphy.
The Coyotes especially in the third set showed their versatility with players playing in different spots and in different lineups. It was something that Belluscio was proud to see from his players.
"It's really, really great right now because early in the season we didn't have a lot of depth with some injuries, and we did add a few players recently, and they have brought a lot to this team, a lot to the locker room. They are really good athletes – they are soccer players formerly and volleyball players obviously – it's just helping with the depth issue, it helps in keeping girls healthy. Volleyball is a tasking sport on the knees, the shoulders, and we have a lot of injuries. Finally getting healthy at the right time, finally playing our best volleyball at the right time, and we couldn't be more excited," he said.
The Coyotes finish non-conference play visiting this same West Coast Baptist College team, then turn their attention to the start of Inland Empire Athletic Conference play hosting Desert on Wednesday at 5 p.m.
Belluscio said on finishing non-conference and preparing for conference, "we are decently making some tweaks, figuring out our best lineups, working different lineups, which is important, and really excited to get into conference play. I think since we played Taft, now we have belief in the locker room and the girls can see that we can play with anybody in the state. It's starting to show — three wins in a row, we are really dominating, our serves are really good, our offense is looking really good, so we are excited. It's like the saying you want to be playing your best game as you get into conference, and I feel we are doing so."
The Cerro Coso coach added on the excitement to start conference play, "this is what it's about. There are some good teams in the conference. We expect every match to be competitive, and we are excited for the opportunity to compete with teams who have been in our conference for a long time and the school knows them well. We will see who we can compete with this year."