Lorrie Reyes / Roundup
Pierce College’s women’s volleyball team loses their chance at a playoff birth after dropping their fourth Western State Conference South Division game to College of the Canyons Tuesday at COC 3-2 games (21-25, 21-25, 25-16, 25-19, 15-11).
During their final three games, the Brahamas lost in a dramatic fashion to the Cougars after being up 0-2 games after the first two sets.
“This was probably the biggest loss for us,” said sophomore Brooke McFerren. “Now we can’t go to playoffs and they’re our rivals, so it’s like poison on the dagger.”
Pierce looked in good shape to take the game, winning the first two games convincingly and taking the first two points in game three.
However, COC made a huge comeback, with the help of the home court crowd and by moving their middle blockers to stop Pierce’s offense after the first two sets.
“It took us a while to make the adjustments that we were asking for,” said COC Interim Head Coach Clay Timmons. “I credit that a lot to the pressure that Pierce put on us.”
Pierce looked to lose confidence as the points tallied on College of the Canyon’s scoreboard.
In the tiebreaking fifth game, which is only played to 15 points instead of 25, Pierce was down by six points to COC but the Brahmas rallied back.
“They don’t realize what they did here today. I didn’t think we had a chance there in that last set,” said Pierce Assistant Coach Brad Lyans “being down 8-2 on a switch and coming back to tie it at 11-11 is amazing.”
Pierce’s attack was led by two of the three sophomores, McFerren and Natasha Wilroy, who had a total of 27 kills.
While McFerren had 11 kills on her own, she also had nine errors including two to start the fifth game giving COC a 2-0 lead, was previously a middle blocker and has recently moved to the outside to strengthen the offense.
Although it’s been an adjustment for McFerren she enjoys her new position and realizes it’s what’s best for the team.
This year marks the first time since 2001 that the Pierce College women’s volleyball team will miss the playoffs and has lost to College of the Canyons.
College of the Canyons is ranked in the top 20 in Calif., according to Lyans. Taking COC to five games is a win itself for Pierce, who only has three returning players from last year.
“We understand that Pierce this year isn’t quite the powerhouse as past years,” said Timmons. “We knew coming into this game that Pierce was going to want it really bad.”
Despite their efforts in trying to pull off an upset, Pierce is now 3-4 in WSC conference with two of those loses coming from COC.
Although this is Pierce’s second loss to COC this year their rivalry has been alive since Pierce became the WSC South conference champions in 2001 over COC.
But the rivalry with COC will have to wait until next year as the focus shifts to their next matchup with Glendale College on Friday.
“We will work just as hard in the gym no matter if we’re going to the playoffs, won state or lost all our games,” said Pierce captain and sophomore Reyna Rochin.
