A doubly tough loss

Bryce Alderton

Three teams tied for the conference lead with only three games to

go.

That’s the situation for the Orange Coast College women’s

volleyball team after the Pirates dropped a match in four games,

30-25, 28-30, 19-30, 21-30, to visiting Golden West in Peterson Gym

Wednesday night.

With the win the Rustlers tie the season series between the two

teams at one game apiece but more importantly, Coast (15-2, 9-2 in

the OEC), Golden West (11-5, 9-2 in conference) and Irvine Valley

College all have two conference losses headed into the final three

regular-season matches.

After winning the first game, Coast became tentative, attacking

less and less, and the Rustlers took advantage, said Orange Coast

Coach Chuck Cutenese, who was without one of his best players in

outside hitter Melissa Zapiain, after she was sidelines with an

injury to her right ankle when her foot landed on an opponent’s foot

with the score tied, 21-21, in Game 2.

“We had the opportunities but there were just too many unforced

errors,” Cutenese said.

The Pirates committed 15 unforced errors to the Rustlers’ four up

to OCC’s 15-14 lead in Game 4.

“We were just not playing aggressively enough and at times we

looked like we were running around with our heads chopped off. And

that’s not because we lost Melissa. We fought back in Game 2 and

started Game 4 well, but we lost balls in transition. It came down to

ball control.”

OCC’s biggest lead in Game 2 came at 12-7 before Golden West

scored nine straight points to take a 16-12 lead, getting three kills

in that span from Ashley Jensen, who finished with 21 kills for the

Rustlers and had four blocks as did 6-foot-3 teammate Ashley Thometz,

who contributed seven kills. The duo provided a wall that was

difficult for Coast hitters to break through.

The Pirates biggest lead in the third game was four points, which

happened twice at 9-5 and 10-6, on the kills of Marti Merriott, Casey

Petersen, Krystle Davis, Kelly Overby, Jessica Lippi and Christine

Ryan.

Davis and Overby both had 10 kills while Petersen added eight

kills, five blocks and seven digs and Elisha Counts tallied 19

assists and had five digs, getting help on the passing front from

Jessica Lippi, who had 16 assists and two blocks.

Ryan collected five blocks while Zapiain had 12 digs before she

injured her ankle in the second game. She walked around in crutches

during the rest of the match. Jessica Lingo tallied one kill.

“We’ll have to check that out (today),” Cutenese said.