Rustlers still rule

Bryce Alderton

The stakes were high coming into the Orange Empire Conference women’s

volleyball showdown Wednesday night between visiting Golden West

College and Orange Coast: No. 1 versus No. 2 in the state, two

undefeated teams, one on a 19-match winning streak.

That streak extended to 20 for Golden West, which has claimed the

last 10 state titles and swept Orange Coast, 30-25, 30-27, 30-25, but

hardly the brand of volleyball that pleased Rustler Coach Albert

Gasparian, in his 21st year at the helm.

“I’m happy with the result, but disappointed with the effort,”

Gasparian said. “They out-hustled us on defense and covered a lot of

our blockers. We didn’t play with any emotion.”

But it was on the blocks where the top-ranked Rustlers (5-0, 4-0

in the OEC) fooled the Pirates (8-1, 3-1). Freshman middle blocker

Taylor Love had five solo blocks on the outside, thwarting many

Pirate hitting attempts.

Sophomore outside hitter Nicole Ryan led the Rustlers with 13

kills while sophomore middle blocker Ashley Jensen, the Most Valuable

Player from last year’s state finals, tallied 11.

“We slowed down their middles, but [Ryan] and [Love] each had

bigger nights than we thought,” Coast Coach Chuck Cutenese said. “In

Games 2 and 3 we were applying pressure, but not capitalizing and not

taking care of the ball as I would have liked.”

Coast grabbed its first lead of the match at 12-11 in the second game before Golden West took a 23-18 advantage on a stuff block by

Rachel Falco. Coast slowly crept back, getting to within two points

twice, including at 29-27 after sophomore setter Amber McCarthy

served four consecutive points, including an ace. But a kill from

Ryan gave the visitors a comfortable 2-0 lead.

McCarthy tallied a team-high 22 assists to go with 16 digs.

Sophomore Christine Woller, a Newport Harbor High product and UC

Irvine transfer, led Coast with nine kills while sophomore Marti

Merriott slammed six kills. Sophomore Melissa Sherman had 30 digs,

several times diving on the floor to maintain possession.

Coast had leads of four points twice in Game 3, including at 11-7

before Golden West scored 13 of the game’s next 16 points to build a

20-14 cushion. A McCarthy stuff block started a four-point run for

Coast that got it within 28-24 before a Love kill and an OCC setting

error gave the Rustlers the victory. McCarthy served four straight

points during the stretch.

“The middle part of games is where we are the weakest,” Cutenese

said. “It came down to the little things. As a coach you look at

picking up the tips and free balls. We need to pick those up and run

our three options. This is a wake-up call. I told the girls, ‘Do we

hang our heads or improve from here?’”