Vaqs come up short at home in four

NORTHEAST GLENDALE — For a conference match victory to happen sometime soon, the passing will need to improve for the Glendale Community College women’s volleyball team.

It didn’t take long for Glendale college Coach Yvette Ybarra to isolate the facet of the game that the Vaqueros struggled in most during a Western State Conference South Division match against visiting College of the Canyons on Friday night.

Canyons keyed in on Glendale college’s passing deficiencies to record a 21-30, 30-19, 30-26, 30-16 victory.

The Vaqueros (6-10, 0-3 in the division) fared well with their passing attack in the first game, but couldn’t keep it going in the final three games. The Cougars (8-5, 1-2) attacked the net to collect easy points.

“We just didn’t pass [in the last three games],” said Ybarra, who got 40 assists from freshman setter Autumn Gomez. “Our passing killed us those last three games.

“It was kind of ridiculous in that third game when we had eight hitting errors and three service errors. It comes down to passing. We can run plays when we want to instead of what the other teams want to.”

During the final three games, Canyons managed to get a lot of points close to the net to further frustrate Ybarra and her athletes.

The Cougars strung together at least five points in a row in that stretch to break open each game.

Glendale college sophomore middle blocker/outside hitter Krisheena Ellis, who finished with a team-high 16 kills, did her best to keep the Vaqueros within striking distance.

Ellis said the Vaqueros suffered from not communicating during certain parts of the contest.

“We’re not playing smart, and we have to stay focused,” Ellis said. “Our communication has been up and down.

“We are like a roller coaster going up and down. We have to keep our confidence up and practice on the things we messed up on [Friday].”

The Vaqueros had plenty of highlights in the first game. Ellis had five kills, and sophomore middle blocker Susie Marco contributed four to spur Glendale college.

The Vaqueros got 12 kills from Marco, a Flintridge Prep graduate who earned all-conference first-team honors last season. Teammate Aya Nakano, a freshman outside hitter, contributed 12 kills and 13 digs.

Canyons finished with 14 aces, including five from sophomore outside hitter Bridgette Redmond and three from sophomore outside hitter Jackie Ruiz.

The Vaqueros collected six aces.

Ybarra said the Vaqueros need to learn to stay consistent during the final month of the regular season.

“We have to try working on staying more consistent, and we did that in the first game,” said Ybarra, whose team will next compete in another conference divisional match at 7 p.m. Tuesday against host L.A. Pierce College. “We have two club players on our team, and I don’t have a lot of people who played last year [at Glendale college].

“We have to go out there and try to earn our points. I don’t think that they want to give up.”

Glendale college and Canyons will meet again at 7 p.m. Nov. 6 at Canyons.