Santa Rosa Junior College’s volleyball players made a vivid statement to future teams stepping on their home court as they hold an undefeated 8-0 record at home.
SRJC defended its home court against Folsom Lake College, making a comeback after losing the first two sets. Sophomore middle hitter Lilah Bacon played her part by leading the team with 16 kills and a .385 kill percentage.
Sophomore setter Kaleigh Weiand led the team in assists, recording 44 of the team’s 51. This is also a season high for Weiand as she recorded 43 assists earlier in the season.
Freshman libero Daya Mosqueda flew around the court dove for the ball. She led the team with 36 digs. One notable dive came late in the fifth in which Mosqueda surprisingly kept the play alive to keep her team from losing possession.
After a very back-and-forth first set, SRJC won a lengthy rally to make the score 12-11. Momentum stayed on their side as they scored eight of the next 10 rallies to take a 20-13 lead. But there is no such thing as a comfortable lead, which Folsom proved when they came back and won the first set 27-25.
Although they blew the lead, the Bear Cubs put up another great fight, going back and forth with both teams having impressive scoring streaks. But their efforts weren’t enough. Folsom won the second set 25-22.
“Our coach always tells us to have brains of goldfish — to just forget it — because we can’t do anything about it,” said Bacon when asked about going down 2-0 against Folsom.
It seemed to have worked. The Bear Cubs came out for the third set looking refreshed. They dominated the third set with a consistent lead and won 25-18.
“We got our momentum back and [Folsom] stayed down on themselves for a while. Thankfully we were able to bounce back,” Bacon said.
Momentum swung back and forth as each team took turns on scoring streaks. As the game went down to the wire, SRJC took control at the last second, which eventually led to Bacon scoring the winning point in the fourth.
“We were all just ready to beat them, we knew we could do it from the start,” Bacon said.
The Bear Cubs’ confidence was high going into the final set. Folsom kept it close but ultimately couldn’t keep up as SRJC won 15-12.
The SRJC volleyball team will host its next home game against Sierra Community College at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 26 at Haehl Pavilion gym.
