Playing on its refurbished floor at Hutto-Patterson Gymnasium for the first time in 11 matches this season, the state #9-ranked Pasadena City College women's volleyball team twice ran into downturns Wednesday. The first came in a first set, 5-point defeat. Then after rolling to consecutive set wins, the Lancers fell behind 20-13 in the fourth set.
As PCC appeared to be heading to a deciding fifth set, the team turned to sophomore libero Grace Crawford who put on a serving exhibition that befuddled Riverside City. After teammate Janell Currier landed two aces, PCC trailed 21-16 and then got back sideout. At that point, Crawford twice served aces and had a third serve that RCC could not handle during a 5-0 Lancers spurt.
At 23-23, Riverside made a serving error and then Erykah Wilson ripped a kill near the net that gave PCC a 4-set victory, 20-25, 25-15, 25-18, 25-23. Pasadena has won three straight and upped its record to 9-2 while RCC fell to 5-4.
"It was like we never really played free," PCC head coach Mike Terrill said of the team's up-and-down play. "There was some jitters from finally getting to play on the new floor and playing at home for the first time all year. We fought through it and then our hitters made the right adjustments in the middle sets. In the fourth, we kind of fell back into that nervous play from the first. I told my assistants to just let Grace loose on her serving run. She's a really smart player and it got our momentum back. Nalani Young had a big match on the hitting side. At the end of the day, I'm real happy with the end result, I'm proud our players figured out a way to get it done in crunch time."
Young was a force in the third set when she delivered six of her match-high 17 kills. Currier added 12 kills, 10 digs and three aces while Crawford totaled 17 digs and served five of the team's 13 aces. Wilson, who has been maybe the team's most efficient attacker of late, added 10 kills and hit .400.
PCC begins the South Coast Conference season next Wednesday, Sept. 25 when it hosts #25-ranked Rio Hondo in a 6 p.m. match at the H-P Gym.