The women’s volleyball team ended its regular season with a loss against College of the Canyons Cougars in straight sets.
Throughout the first set, service errors by the Brahmas sent the ball traveling out of bounds, giving points to the Cougars. COC remained ahead in the set, and the Brahmas could not overcome them. Pierce lost the first set 25-22.
Head Coach Nabil Mardini didn’t mince words when he said that the Brahmas’ early performance paled in comparison to the Cougars’.
“College of the Canyons served better, they passed better, they ducked better and they transitioned better. We were playing like a chicken with its head cut off,” Mardini said. “We shot ourselves in the foot with all the errors we made.”
The team was able to cutback on some of its service errors in the second set and the score close.
The Brahmas were able to tie the game at 18, but the COC offense hit hard in the tail end of the set and were able to break away. The Cougars claimed the second set 25-21.
According to defensive specialist, Linnea Romero, the Brahmas were able to improve on their performance from the first set by paying more attention to the plays made by the COC team and talking to each other a bit more.
“We just started adjusting more and communicating. What we saw from the other team, we responded to,” Romero said.
In the final set, the Brahmas completed their serves and were able to attain a brief lead over the Cougars with a score of 11-9.
However, after a pair of timeouts, the COC team was able to focus its offense and overtake the Brahmas.
The team crept behind the Cougars throughout the late game, but were unable to regain its lead. The Cougars won the game with a final score of 25-20.
Romero said that the Cougars gave a powerful offensive game that the Brahmas just couldn’t guard against.
“They put up a good fight and had a really good offense. We just slacked with our defense throughout the game,” Romero said.
Middle blocker, Catelynn Pulido, said that the Brahmas let their errors weigh heavily on them throughout the game, which negatively impacted the team’s performance.
“We just held onto our mistakes for too long, even though we were trying to tell ourselves to just move on,” Pulido said. “Even when we made our points, we’d end up getting brought back down by whatever errors we made.”
Pulido said that the loss will not hold the team back going into playoffs, and that the game against the Cougars served as a learning experience.
“This was definitely a lesson learned. This game showed us what not to do going forward, and we’ll bounce back and be better than before,” Pulido said.
The Brahmas will take to the court again in their first game of the playoffs, scheduled to take place on Nov. 18.
