Pirates sweep Bulldogs on Sophomore Night at the AEC

The VC volleyball team honored its sophomore class Wednesday before sweeping past Allan Hancock, 26-24, 25-19, 25-15 at the Athletic Event Center. Josephine Rausch posted her 10th double-double of the season with 12 kills and 14 digs while hitting .308 and Callie Cahill added 12 winners at the net with a .364 hitting percentage. Shai Daniels led the defensive effort with 22 digs and Addison Olson recorded four blocks. Monaye Ramessar and Valeria Ibarra handed out 17 and 15 assists, respectively.

The Pirates seemed a bit nostalgic in the early going after a ceremony honoring the team's eight sophomores. This allowed the Bulldogs to take a 10-5 advantage in the opening set before kills by Daphne Raymond and Rausch began to get Ventura untracked. Rausch had two more big swings to cut the deficit to a single point, and the margin remained until Madison Mierau's kill moved VC ahead, 18-17. Hancock served on set-point, 24-22, when Rausch had a kill, then teamed up with Taylor Lane on a block to move the team ahead, 25-24. Lane then got the block on set-point for the 26-24 Ventura win.

Ventura trailed 9-4 in the second set before Rausch had a pair of kills and Olson served up an ace to close the gap to 9-7. Hancock scored three of the next five points for a 12-9 advantage before Jocelyn Alfar's first kill of the night began a Pirate run. With Daniels on the serve, VC scored eight straight points including an Olson kill and Olson and Alfar working together at the net for a block. Raymond's winner pushed the lead to 20-16, Daniels had a great pancake save on a serve that hit the net, leading to a winner by Rausch, and Raymond had the big swing on set point for the 25-19 win for Ventura.

The third set was all VC from the start. Sadie Lishman served up a pair of aces to start, and Cahill's winner put VC ahead 4-1. Beira Boyso also hit an ace for a 6-1 lead and Alfar's unreturned serve made it 9-6. Ibarra got into the ace game  with two out of three winners on the serve for a 17-8 advantage. Finally, Alfar served one last ace for the clincher, 25-15 in the third set.

 Ventura served up 12 aces as a team, led by Alfar's three and two by Lishman, Ibarra and Daniels. 

The Pirates (13-9, 6-5) will next host College of the Desert on Monday Nov. 10 in a non-conference make-up at 5:30 pm.