The Pierce College Women’s Volleyball team honored its sophomores prior to their 59th straight match victory against rival College of the Canyons in the South Gym Wednesday.
The Brahmas continued their streak with a match win (25-8, 19-25, 25-17, 25-21), but not uncontested as Pierce lost its first set since its Nov. 2, 2011 game against Bakersfield College.
During the Sophomore Night ceremony, Pierce players presented the three COC sophomores with roses and the seven Brahmas were met by their families on the court to applause from the crowd and their coach.
“Not too many players can say ‘I came to Pierce and went undefeated,’” said Nabil Mardini, head coach. “It’s quite an accomplishment.”
But the festivities soon ended when the game began, with the Brahmas coming out strong in the first set.
But the second set did not go so smoothly, with Pierce and COC trading points before the Wildcats took the lead and kept it through the set, not allowing the Brahmas to get into a rhythm according to Mardini.
“Our hitting was off, our serving was off, our passing broke down like I had never seen it before,” Mardini said. “We didn’t win the serving and passing battle, and you’re not going to win a lot a games by losing that battle.”
But Mardini did give credit where he said credit was due.
“They came with a game plan and did an outstanding job,” Mardini said.
Sophomore Jessica Burns said the match was a learning experience.
“[They’re] just simple things we need to fix and we’ll fix them this week,” Burns said.
Mardini also said the team had to build off of this and was glad the game went the way it did from a certain perpective.
“Teams are going to come gunning for you and you have to be prepared,” Mardini said.
Pierce came back hard the next two close sets and won out the match, but not without some scrappy plays and a few head shots from Sophomore Danetta Boykin (17 kills).
“Some of them are personal, I’m not even gonna lie,” Boykin said. “I go faces and if it happens, it happens.”
But Mardini is not worried about the win steak, he only has one win on his mind.
“All I care about is one win, that is the finals and going to state championships,” Mardini said.
Pierce is heading into the playoffs undefeated, with the first opponent yet to be decided.
