Glendale Community College volleyball falls short at home

NORTHEAST GLENDALE — In an ending symbolic of most of the match, the Glendale Community College women’s volleyball team got close, but just couldn’t catch Santa Monica City College.

The Vaqueros rallied from a seven-point deficit, when the Corsairs needed only six more to win, to close to within three in the third game and came all the way back from an early eight-point deficit to tie the fourth game only to be denied a shot at a fifth game when Santa Monica closed out the Western State Conference match, 25-17, 23-25, 25-19, 25-19.

“I think it was a letdown the whole [match],” Vaqueros Coach Yvette Ybarra said. “Serve-receive, passing, not staying composed, we’re just all over the place, not playing our position, doing things we shouldn’t be doing.

“There’s 101 things I could say right now.”

Glendale (3-11, 0-2 in conference), which was led by six kills from Angela Gaignard and five kills from Amanda Sadia, faded down the stretch of the opening game, but bounced back in the second, in which Sadia had three kills and Brooke Forester had two kills and an ace.

The teams were locked in a tie at 20 before Santa Monica (4-5, 1-0) faltered with four unforced errors down the stretch.

Glendale’s momentum carried over into a 7-4 lead in the third game, but the Corsairs were soon off on a 7-1 run to take back control and led, 19-12, on an ace by Shay Hassenfratz. The Vaqueros got back in the game with a 5-3 run that included an ace from Gaignard and ended on a kill by Ashlie Valmonte.

But a kill from Angie Rinaldi and an ace by Bianca Ngo helped key a game-closing run that put the Corsairs one game away from the win.

Santa Monica looked to be putting the finishing touches on the win early in the fourth game, blazing out to a 12-4 lead on kills by Michelle Smith and Justyce Smith and aces from Hassenfratz and Rinaldi.

Glendale had one rally left, however, getting off the mat with a Forrester kill followed by a Sadia ace, and was able to creep back to within 14-13 when Santa Monica committed back-to-back hitting errors. Sadia notched a kill to cut Santa Monica’s lead to 20-17, but a return by Thalia Alvarez that the Vaqueros defense misread was allowed to fall right on the back line for a momentum-changing point for the Corsairs.

“I’m just really disappointed right now in our performance and the fact is to me it just seems like we’re not really here to always compete at the same level,” Ybarra said. “We’re so up and down and it’s kind of hard to manage at this point.”