Throughout the regular season the Santa Rosa Junior College Bear Cubs conquered adversity, but when it mattered most they came up short losing their round-one matchup to the Butte College Roadrunners on Nov. 20 in Haehl Pavilion.

In the first round of the Big 8 conference playoffs the Bear Cubs lost to the Roadrunners 3-2.

Earlier this season these two teams met and were evenly matched, going the full five sets, and after the first set it seemed they were in store to repeat.

Butte came out firing early but the Bear Cubs were used to fighting back. SRJC looked comfortable as they tied the set 23-23, but Butte finished them off winning 26-28.

Freshman Peyton Jones, said they “put everything on the floor,” and they had fun while doing it.

Set two was just as exhilarating as the first, both teams were getting digs in left and right, and the hustle was in playoff mode. But this time Bear Cubs prevailed and won the set25-23.

The crowd started to get into the game and Bear Cubs fed off the energy, coming out strong in the third set beating Butte 25-18.
But Butte wouldn’t go away and capitalized on SRJC’s errors to win the fourth set 25-14.

“Mental mistakes cost us the fourth set,” said SRJC head coach Kaitlin Ferguson.

Butte carried its momentum into the final set and won 15-6.

The Bear Cubs next match is on Dec. 2 at Solano College in Fairfield, Calif.