The things that were great and not so great about the Pasadena City College women's volleyball team showed up in its Southern California Regional Playoff Round 1 match on Friday night. #13 seed and host Saddleback downed the Lancers in four sets, 28-26, 25-22, 22-25, 25-23, to eliminate #20 PCC.
The Lancers (16-13 overall) led in the opening set by as much as 18-13 and had a 23-22 advantage only to see Saddleback (18-6) win out in extra points on a kill by Meg Gardner. In the second set, PCC jumped ahead 17-11 on a Biko Hollie kill, but the Bobcats went on a 14-5 run to grab a 2-0 sets lead.
Inserting a new setter in Shaylee Ungos, PCC got some steam in the third and took an 8-2 lead. Despite another Saddleback push back at 22-22, a Hollie kill and an ace by Juyeon Lee kept the season alive momentarily with a 3-point win.
In the fourth, PCC continued its early set success throughout the match in grabbing a 7-1 lead capped on another kill by Hollie. The Bobcats again roared back, ultimately going ahead at 18-14. Chayse Hoon's 16th kill of the match tied it at 23-23, but a Gardner kill and a Lancers attack error signaled the end of the season.
Pasadena struggled in close sets this season as the final tally was a remarkable 10-20 in sets decided by two points, a .333 winning percentage, including two more losses in this defeat.
"I wish I could have helped us better as coach to find better solutions to the problem of letting leads slip away this season," said head coach Mike Terrill, who directed his program to its seventh straight trip to the postseason.
"I still think our team got better and tougher later in the season. We played our best volleyball when it mattered most. Getting to the postseason again, the consistency of our program to reach the playoffs so often is not easy compared to the rest of the region. We won a conference title and we played the hardest schedule I've ever assembled. The players should be proud as our assistant coaches."
Emily Licon made 32 digs in the match and broke the school record for digs in a season, setting a new standard with 398. Hollie, the MVP of the South Coast Conference North Division, had a marvelous finale as she placed 22 kills with 18 digs. She is is the second Lancer to reach 300-300 in kills and digs. Her 369 kills this season is third highest single-season total in PCC history.
Hoon closed out her Lancers 2-year run by being just the eighth PCC player to reach 300 kills in a season (318). Hoon and Hollie are the first to accomplish that feat in the same season.
The future may be bright as freshmen in Lee completed her fine year with 13 digs and five aces, middle blocker Savannah Curtis scored six kill and seven blocks, defensive specialist Marina Segura totaled 13 digs and two aces, and opposite Mahrie Bedjakian chipped in flve blocks.