Women’s volleyball: Pirates win in four

Tony Altobelli

COSTA MESA - With a resemblance of an army M*A*S*H unit, Orange

Coast College women’s volleyball team mustered up enough strength to

defeat visiting Fullerton College Wednesday night, 8-15, 15-11, 15-16,

15-9, in an important Orange Empire Conference contest.

“We’re still trying to get healthy over here,” Coach Chuck Cutenese

said afterward. “We played hard tonight and we played well considering

the fact we had some players playing out of position.”

For the Pirates (8-5, 3-2 in the OEC), outside hitters Susie Packard

and Rachel Reed, both sophomores are doubtful for the rest of the week

with various injuries.

“If we don’t get them back for Riverside on Friday, then we’ll

definitely need them for Santa Ana on Wednesday,” Cutenese said. “Every

game is crucial and we need to pick up both of these upcoming games.”

Beth Waterman, despite also bitten by the injury bug, managed to rip

off 26 assists to lead the Pirates’ attack against the Hornets (5-5,

0-5).

“Beth did a great job of really stepping up when we needed her,”

Cutenese said. “She pretty much took over for us in the end.”

It was Fullerton, however, that took control early, taking advantage

of Pirate miscues and turning a 5-5 tie into a 15-8 win in the opening

game.

“That first game was really a wake-up call for us,” Cutenese said. “We

needed some more experience in certain positions, so we shuffled the

lineup in the second, third and fourth games and it paid off for us.”

After falling behind, 5-2, early in game one, the Bucs made sure to

set the tempo early in game two, and they did by jumping out to leads of

6-3 and 11-6, before finally winning, 15-11.

The Pirates took advantage of less than stellar passing from Fullerton

by hitting effective and error-free serves throughout the contest.

“It wasn’t so much the strength of our service game, more than those

guys not being as good on the passing side of the game,” Cutenese said.

“I still feel that one of the things we need to work on is a more

aggressive serve.”

Game three was dominated by the Pirates, jumping out to a 12-1 lead

before cruising to a 15-6 win.

“I think the biggest thing we have going for us is our defensive

game,” Cutenese said. “We did a good job of preventing Fullerton from

getting easy points and we did a good job hustling all night.”

Fullerton picked up the intensity in game four jumping out to leads of

6-1 and 7-2 before OCC scored the next six points to take an 8-7 lead.

After Fullerton regained the lead, 9-8, OCC scored the final seven

points to close out the match.

Along with Waterman, Becky Baumgarten added six kills and Missy

Jamison had 35 assists for the Pirates.

“Missy did a great job of setting for us tonight,” Cutenese said. “She

made the job of the hitters a lot easier with effective passes the entire

contest.

Despite the win, Cutenese knows there are bigger battles down the

line.

“With all these different lineups, we have to find a way to do a

better job with communication,” Cutenese said. “Also we have to find a

better way of using our middle players more. Hopefully, we’ll get healthy

soon and we can hang tough with the rest of the conference and reach the

playoffs.

Next up for the Pirates is home contest against Riverside Friday and a

crucial matchup at Santa Ana on Wednesday. Both games are 7 p.m.