Courier

Media Credit: Linus Shentu Candice Price (left) and Kelly Mort prepare to receive a serve against L.A. Trade Tech Friday.

WEB EXCLUSIVE - After dropping two straight games, the Lancers bounced back strong in their first conference match with an offensive barrage against visiting L.A. Trade Tech College on Friday.

The Lancers swept Trade Tech in straight sets (25-12, 25-6, 25-19), improving their overall record to 6-3, behind freshman middle blocker Galia Sotomayor's game-high 10 kills. Sotomayor was pivotal in the Lancers' routing of Trade Tech (0-3) serving the Beavers with strong vicious kills one after the other.

"I just wanted to be intense, loud and aggressive," said Sotomayor. "We really wanted to prove to ourselves that we can [play in this conference]."

PCC Head Coach Tammy Silva went with a different starting lineup by using Kelly Mort at the libero position instead of Marissa Rangel. Jessica Damasco, another usual starter, also came off the bench.

"I wanted to give other players more playing time and this was the perfect opportunity," explained Silva, who realized that the Beavers only had seven players in their rotation since Trade Tech players Brittni Huggins, Youa Her and Jenny Galban were absent due to injuries.

"We were very limited with players so we couldn't switch a lot of them around. It was very difficult," said Trade Tech Head Coach Cuong Chau.

When Rangel and Damasco entered game two, the Lancers wore down the Beavers and took a commanding 15-3 lead, 10 points of which went unanswered, before Coach Chau called a timeout to regroup. After the timeout, the Lancers quickly scored two more unanswered points before an unforced PCC error halted a 12-0 run.

"We started slow and it carried on [throughout] the whole match," said Chau.

The Lancers easily dominated the first two games, limiting the Beavers to a total of 21 points combined. In the third set, however, the Lancers were unable to close the match convincingly and allowed the Beavers to score 19 points, even trailing 6-3.

"[There] was a different lineup [in game three] so there was bad communication," explained Silva.

Before the game, PCC Coach Silva said too many unforced errors were what caused their recent two-game skid and that offense was the key to victory. On Friday, The Lancers tallied 31 team kills, but still had 12 costly errors.

"We were very aggressive [tonight], but we need to find more consistency," said Silva.

Team chemistry continued to be a major factor, despite numerous lineup changes throughout the game, in the wake of the Lancers' success. Vanessa Amran dished out 24 out of 28 Lancer assists.

Co-captain Candice Price had a quiet, yet effective game with 8 kills and 6 digs, while co-captain Ashley Marshman contributed only 1 kill.

Outside hitter Krystel Luna collapsed in pain and was seen bracing her right knee at the end of the game, and its uncertain what injury she suffered.

"I felt something pop," said Luna, who had problems with the knee before and injured the same knee a few days prior.

"Hopefully it's not an ACL," said Silva.

In the possibility that Luna is sidelined to injury, Coach Silva said, "We have a couple of girls dying to get more playing time, but I think we'd do well [without her]."

The Lancers will host El Camino on Wednesday at 6 p.m.

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