As the volleyball ball spun clockwise through the cold air, squeaking sneakers echoed across the floors of the gym, and running players set their eyes on one object only: the ball. After the vigorous game between the Brahmas and the Santa Barbara Vaqueros, Pierce College men’s volleyball team faced a challenging match, going 0-3 on Wednesday, March 19, making their current season record 4-11.
Within the first 10 minutes of the game, Santa Barbara managed to score 4-1, but Pierce quickly caught up to them by blocking their spikes. While the Vaqueros carried five points ahead for most of the first half, Brahmas continued to keep their heads high, ending the first set as 25-19, a win for Santa Barbara.
Setter and outside hitter for the Brahmas, Brandon Ta, hopes they rack up momentum in the second half of the conference schedule.
“We had a lot of ups and downs but trying to focus more on the ups and trying to work on the downs.” Brandon Ta said, “I think it’ll be very good leading into the second half of the conference, and building the momentum, hopefully we can get some good wins. Just trying to work on the high positive energy.”
For the majority of the third set, both teams, were neck and neck. Brandon Ta had great turnouts with spiking the ball, gaining points, while both middle hitters, Lars Hart and Bryan Ta successfully blocked strikes from the opposing team keeping their game even and tense.
Karl Manolong, setter for the Brahmas said there was a shift in the team after they got off their heads.
“The game fell really close.” Manolong said, “Once we stopped digging ourselves and put our heads up, we started playing a lot better, which you can see in the third set.”
Brandon Ta believes the team will be able to quickly adapt to the circumstances of the next game.
“I think we made some good adjustments towards the end and I think next time we play them, we’ll kind of make those adjustments faster.”
Head Coach Joseph Arechiga summed up the season, saying despite an up-and-down season the team ended strong.
“Today, against Santa Barbara, was the end of our first half of the conference and I feel like we ended on a very strong note,” Arechiga said, “The game itself was kind of like a summary of our season so far, it was very up and down.”
The Brahams will go up against the Santa Monica Corsairs for their next home game on Friday, March 28, at 6 p.m. in the South Gym and will be playing against the Vaqueros again on April 11, for their last game of the season.
