Volleyball Serves Up Wins Over Citrus, AVC

Reese Roper delivers one of her eight aces in the Lancers win over Antelope Valley (photo by Michael Watkins).
Reese Roper delivers one of her eight aces in the Lancers win over Antelope Valley (photo by Michael Watkins).

Ranked #11 in the state, the Pasadena City College women's volleyball team used an efficient hitting and serving attack to record sweeps over Citrus and Antelope Valley at the PCC Quad #2 tourney held Friday at Hutto-Patterson Gymnasium.

The Lancers ran their winning streak to six in a row and upped their overall record to 8-2. 

In its 25-19, 25-18, 25-12 triumph over Citrus, Ashley Marrone came off the bench to score 11 kills and hit .500 while Emma Yogan delivered eight kills, eight digs and served four of the team's 12 aces. Bia Silva added 30 assists, four aces, four kills, seven digs and three blocks. Ashley Gilbert drove home nine kills (also hit .500) with five blocks and three aces while Kyley Chang scored six kills and four blocks. Emily Licon added 11 digs. 

PCC unloaded on Antelope Valley, 25-18, 25-2, 25-16, hitting at a .361 clip and serving a season-high 20 aces. The highlight of the day was the potent serving of Reese Roper, who at one point in the second set served a 15-0 scoring run where she landed seven aces. In all, she scored six kills, eight aces and made eight digs. Licon twirled five aces and made 10 digs while Gilbert was a machine with eight kills in just 10 swings (hit .700) along with three aces.

Yogan played in just two sets and tallied five kills and Leslie Pacheco chipped in four kills. Karmen Turner contributed two aces and Lindsay Delgadillo set 11 assists in two sets played. 

With the team's .281 attack percentage v. Citrus, it meant that the Lancers notched their two best hitting matches on the same day. In the previous six matches, PCC's high was a .227 in a sweep over Bakersfield.

"We've been working harder in practices at cutting down our hitting errors and it paid off handsomely today," said PCC head coach Mike Terrill. "Our serving and passing have been a team strength for us and we continued with an aggressive attack in both matches. We had a big win over Moorpark on Wednesday and we could have had a bit of a letdown from the emotions of that victory, but instead we played some of our best volleyball of the season."

The Lancers improved to 5-0 on its home court after last season finishing 12-1 at the HP Gym last season.

Gilbert totaled 17 kills in just 26 attempts (.576) with two errors and scored 25.5 points overall.