Another successful day as the Brahmas took over the tournament by defeating the Mesa College Olympians by a score of 3-0(25-10, 25-17, 25-22) at the South Gym on Saturday Sept. 26.
The Brahmas started the game off with confidence as the Olympians weren’t no match for their incredible offense and defense.
As the first set came in, the Brahmas had an outstanding performance with a result of seven kills, two aces, and two blocks. From there, the Brahmas started it’s momentum at a high level.
During the second set, the Olympians also made a momentum of its own, but sophomore libero Darrin Rice assisted the Brahmas by making great saves and taking hard hits.
“Some of the digs were not as pretty as I would like but definitely I liked how I helped my team out”, said Rice.
With the Brahmas excellent strategy, all they needed was one more set to win.
In the third set, the Olympian got its momentum back as they started off good with a 1-6 lead.
After watching the scoreboard, head coach Nabil Mardini called a timeout to think of another way to overcome their mistakes.
As they resumed the game, nothing made a difference as the Brahmas were making mistakes such as hitting the ball of bounds or miscommunication with each other.
Mardini then calls another timeout as the Brahmas were trailing 15-19.
Brahmas were almost in panic mode but the game started to turn around when sophomore setter Rachel Lods came in to serve.
Lods made five straight successful serves, that’s also including three aces to add to the board.
“It felt good bringing up my teammates confidence”, said Lods. “We were in that third set a little bit nervous and timid, so I feel like I really helped all of them regain their confidence and just go after it in the end”.
After the help from Lods, the Brahmas were able to respond by making extremes kills and blocking hits.
As the final score came out as 25-22, the Brahmas were able to keep its streak going and to remain undefeated.
Mardini is loving the performance of the team, even if they make some of mistakes but that will always be included in all games.
“The goal is to not keep the streak alive, the goal is to go all the way whether we drop a match here and there”, said Mardini. “What’s important is that we want to be good in December”.
Now that the tournament has been completed, the Brahmas starts its American Pacific Conference matches as they first go up against Santa Monica College at home on Wednesday Sept. 30 at 6 p.m.
