The Cerritos College volleyball team lost a tough road game against a highly-ranked Fullerton College squad on Wednesday Sept. 12 in the Hornets’ home gym, 3-1.
The outcome was very much in doubt with the Cerritos College volleyball team remaining competitive to the bitter end.
Match 1
In the first match, the Cerritos College volleyball team jumped out to an early 5-0 lead before surrendering a point to the Hornets with a side out.
Freshman server Stephanie Ortiz of Huntington Park placed the ball in bounds on six consecutive serves, allowing the Cerritos College volleyball team defensive and offensive plays to materialize during the opening run.
During that first match effort, recently activated freshman outside hitter Celesterial Edwards, a transfer from Fullerton College, accounted for three early kills.
South Coast Conference leading hitter Susan Suski, from Cerritos High School, kept the pace with three scoring hits of her own.
“I was nervous at first, but I just had to relax and play my game,” Edwards said after the game about returning to her former teams’ home gym.
Match 2
After dropping the first match, 25-21, both teams see-sawed back and forth until they were tied at 21-21.
During an exciting play, sophomore server Gloria Chang, hit a crucial ace to keep the momentum going for the Falcons.
Middle blocker Andrea Garrett hit two back-to-back hard kills to extend the Cerritos College team’s offensive push.
At the start of the final run to the win, Ortiz matched Garrett’s effort herself, with another set of kills to move the Cerritos College team to within two points of the victory 23-21.
After the Fullerton College volleyball team earned a side out, Cerritos College volleyball team recovered control of the ball.
With the Cerritos College team’s next serve, the Fullerton College team were unable to mount a scoring drive by hitting the ball into the net.
Match 3
With the game now evenly set at one win apiece, the third match was no different than the first two.
Both teams once again went back and forth with the score knotted seven times including near the end, 21-21.
The Cerritos College volleyball team finally succumbed 25-22 on a fine defensive Fullerton College middle block of an attempted strike at center court.
With the Fullerton College volleyball team leading the game two sets to one, Cerritos College team’s challenge lay before them.
Match 4
This time, the powerful Fullerton College volleyball team side took an early 9-3 lead before the Cerritos College team calmed down and started to mount a comeback.
It wasn’t enough.
The Cerritos College volleyball team surrendered a valiant effort 25-19, completing the four-set win for the Fullerton College volleyball team.
Team-wise, the offense was spread out more evenly during the game.
Nine players contributed with at least a kill each including six from sophomore Johanna “Jade” Peralta, hitting from the left side.
Edwards and Suski contributed with 11 kills apiece.
Suski contributed a team-high 17 digs in addition to her offensive output, showing no fear of anything hit in her direction.
Freshman left-side player Ashley Castro was busy digging 15 want-to-be kills herself, keeping the Cerritos College team’s scoring opportunities alive.
In addition to her serving efforts, Ortiz also contributed 13 digs for the stingy Cerritos College team defense.
After the game, Head Coach Eddie Rapp of Fullerton College, having just assisted UC Irvine’s men’s volleyball team to a NCAA Division I Championship last year, said of the Falcon effort, “They’ve got some good players over there. They are well coached.”
Additionally, he added, “We got on a roll with our serve…we got a lot of points off of our serve and that really kept them (Cerritos) on their heels a little bit.”
At an early and young part of the season, the Cerritos College volleyball team will travel to “America’s Finest City” to play In the San Diego Mesa tournament, which begins on Friday.
The first game on is against Grossmont College, and is slated to start at 11:00 a.m. at Grossmont College.
