By John M. Sherrard
(WHITTIER) With a scaled down South Coast Conference schedule this season, every match is important.
Tuesday's four-set win, 25-15, 19-25, 25-23, 25-18, over Rio Hondo College kept the Mounties undefeated at 3-0 in the SCC North Wednesday night, with the halfway mark this Friday.
Previously conference play had two rounds (14 matches) but this season there will only be eight.
The Mounties also continue to creep up in the CCCAA state rankings, with the latest position at No. 17, up one from last week.
Leading the way for the Mounties were sophomores Erica Gumz and Haley English with 12 and 11 kills respectively.
"This is a very good conference this year and we're just going to try and come out like we know how to play," Gumz said.
Sophomore Carolina Urquieta led with 35 assists, followed by 21 digs from sophomore libero Alexandria Peterson. Urquieta also had six kills in nine attempts for a .667% and served an ace and had three digs.
"I'm really proud of how they battled back and forth," Mt. SAC first-year coach Ali Carey-Oliver said. "We have to stay calm under that pressure in order to get in the post season."
Part of that pressure is held at practice with the team training against the coaches every day.
After the Mounties took a close opening set, 25-23, the Roadrunners evened the match at 1-1 with a 25-18 win.
Mt. SAC, which will host Pasadena City College this Friday night, won the final two games to close out the match, but not without a strong challenge from Rio Hondo.
The Mounties held the close lead throughout game three, but a big kill by sophomore middle Kaitlyn Partridge gave them a four-point lead, 20-16.
They kept the four-point lead until two errors at the net brought the Roadrunners within a point, 24-23.
After a Mt. SAC timeout, sophomore outside hitter Makenzie Thieme ended the game with a monster kill to win, 25-23.
The clinching game four was more of the same as the Mounties took the lead early in the match and held a small three-point lead until English took over with three big kills at the end of the game to help win the match.
"Haley is an incredible consistent volleyball player," Carey-Oliver said. "She is so technically sound and just has a way of coming up big when the game is on the line."
Friday night against PCC is the first of six home theme nights.