Trent Lingruen ripped 17 kills on Friday night and Calvin Sanborn added 13 as SBCC downed Antelope Valley 3-1 in a WSC men's volleyball match at the Sports Pavilion. The scores were 25-16, 25-23, 25-27, 25-19.
Sanborn, a 6-4 left-hander from Santa Cruz, hit .385 and also had eight digs and three aces. Zac Pittard contributed nine kills while Aaron Letvin played setter and outside hitter, finishing with seven kills, four aces and 13 assists. Peyton Raab had 19 assists in two sets.
Cameron Clouse had five blocks with four of them solos. David Dennis made a team-high nine digs for the No. 4 Vaqueros (11-6, 7-4).
"I think we took the third game for granted, thinking we were going to beat them in three," said sophomore Blake Lockhart, who had five kills and two aces. "We picked up the energy and started playing as a team in the fourth set."
The Vaqueros stormed out to a 10-1 lead in the fourth set, capped by a block from Clouse, another from Clouse and Lockhart and a kill off the block by Lingruen. They also led 14-7 and 19-10 before AVC staged another rally to close within four at 22-18.
An errant serve and a lift call got the Vaqueros to match point and Pittard closed it out with a kill off the block.
Aaron Letvin ends a long rally with a kill down the line. pic.twitter.com/o56KoIeyiB
— SBCCVaqueros (@SBCCVaqueros) April 6, 2019
The Vaqueros had strong finishes in the first two sets. They broke open a tight 16-14 battle with a 9-2 run to end the opening set. Lockhart had both of his aces in that run and Lingruen had two kills. Austin Lind ended the set with a push kill in the middle.
The second set was close throughout with five ties. The Marauders took a 21-18 lead on a double-contact by the Vaqueros. Then Lingruen slammed a free ball to ignite a 7-2 game-ending run.
The Vaqueros had big leads in the third set, taking a 10-4 edge on a Lingruen ace and a 13-8 lead on an AVC serve in the net. Then the visitors rallied to tie it at 18 and 19. SBCC went up 23-21 on a Lingruen spike off the block but the Marauders had the answer, finishing on a 6-2 run for the 27-25 victory.
"We need to stay mentally focused throughout a match and consistently play good steady volleyball," said coach Jon Newton. "We have the tendency this season to play down to teams. No matter what the score is or who's on the other side of net, we have to stay within ourselves and play consistent volleyball."
Antelope Valley (2-14, 1-10) managed to take a game from the Vaqueros in each meeting.
"We put some backup guys in and switched the lineup tonight," said Newton. "I'm pretty confident that we would sweep them if we had the starters in the whole time.
"Blake was consistent and David came in and did an amazing job at libero. He passed really well and had a lot of good energy. He was pursuing balls and diving for balls. He was putting his body on the ground, rather than watching it."
The Vaqueros close out the regular season on Friday, April 12 when they host No. 2 Long Beach at 6 p.m.
