The state #21-ranked Pasadena City College women's volleyball team closed out the 2019 regular season on a down note in losing to unranked Rio Hondo, 19-25, 25-21, 25-19, 25-18, in the third place final of the South Coast Conference Championship Tournament held Tuesday at Long Beach City College.
The Lancers are 19-9 overall and had a 10-7 route through the SCC, but just a 1-2 mark in the inaugural (and possibly last) SCC Tournament. Rio Hondo (15-11, 9-8) was spurred by Nicole Vasquez, who totaled 14 kills, 14 digs and served five aces. In recent weeks, Pasadena was hurt by unforced errors and this match was no different with 22 attack errors, 13 service mistakes, four block errors and four ball-handling errors.
PCC was 2-0 in the round robin portion of conference play v. Rio Hondo, but the third matchup allowed the Roadrunners a chance to turn the tables on the Lancers.
Outside hitter Erykah Wilson led PCC's offense with 14 kills and OH Janell Currier added nine kills. Outside hitter Nalani Young collected seven kills and seven digs. Libero Grace Crawford made 16 digs and defensive specialist Saku Yoshioka served four aces. Coming off the bench, Kaitlyn Karsten had all five of her kills in the fourth set.
In the semifinals on Nov. 15, #13-rated Long Beach swept the Lancers for its third victory v. PCC this season (10-1 in sets), 25-12, 25-17, 25-14. Middle blocker Paulina Lopez and Wilson each scored six kills and two blocks while Young had six kills and 15 digs. Crawford totaled 13 digs. Brooke Earkman led LBCC with 14 kills and 19 digs. The Vikings hit .296 as a team to just .078 by PCC.
On Nov. 13 in the first round of the tourney, the Lancers downed LA Harbor in four sets, 25-14, 25-12, 23-25, 25-13. Young was a force with 12 kills, 19 digs and three aces while Currier added seven kills, eight digs and twirled five aces. Crawford added 18 digs while Lopez had seven kills (hit .357). Izabella Hernandez made four kills and and two blocks.
The Lancers will learn about their postseason fate on Thursday at the SoCal seeding meeting. Right now, PCC is #12 in SoCal RPI which should be enough to get the team a seed in the 19-team field.
CRAWFORD NOW PCC ALL-TIME DIGS AND SINGLE-SEASON LEADER
Crawford, who played her freshman season in 2017 and was a red shirt in 2018, became the Lancers all-time digs leader for a career (699) and in a season (384 this year).
The letterman broke Pamela Galvan's mark of 360 digs set last year and snapped the career mark held by Jessica Vargas (2010-2011, 658 digs).