Women’s Volleyball Season Ends in Playoff Loss

Kari Post saw her debut season as Pasadena City College women’s volleyball head coach conclude Saturday as the No. 17-seeded Lancers were knocked out of the SoCal Regional playoffs by nemesis and 16th seed Mt. San Antonio, 25-15, 25-23, 25-19, in a play-in round road match.

The Lancers and Post can look back at a successful turnaround season for the program as the team went from a 5-16 mark last year to 14-9 this season. PCC finished in third place in the South Coast Conference and among its victories was a triumph over the South’s No. 1 seed and state co-No. 1-ranked Santa Barbara City College.

“The team we had on the floor v. Mt. SAC was a lot different than the one we had back at that Pierce Tournament,” Post said. “We played without some top players in the playoff, and we had a few others that were not at the level they were playing pre-conference. Still, the effort was there and we had glimpses we belonged as a playoff squad.”

PCC played without top all-around hitter Lahiz Longobardi (injury) and starting middle blocker Angela Banuelos, who became ineligible and left the team a few weeks ago.

The Lancers led 22-20 in the second set following a kill by Kirsten Cabarong, but Mt. SAC outscored PCC, 5-1, to take a 2-0 sets lead. In the third set, the Mounties jumped ahead 7-1 and the Lancers closed it to 20-18. Again, Mt. SAC went on a 5-1 run and finished its third sweep of Pasadena this season and the second in a span of four days.

Mt. SAC (18-5) had four different players reach double digits in kills as Makenzie Thieme led the group with 13. Meanwhile, Lancers middle blocker Kendra Logan was the team’s kills leader with nine (15 attempts) and Cabarong added eight. Setter Monica Hernandez reached a team-high 13 digs and 16 assists, opposite Kayla Howell had 11 digs, defensive specialist/libero Saige Spence totaled eight digs, and outside hitter Rayleen Rivera made five kills. Backup setter Hannah Clarke chipped in seven assists and served two aces in playing just the third set.

“You always want to strive to be the best, but there were some great things about this season,” Post said. “We played well against some really good playoff teams like Ventura, San Diego Mesa and Bakersfield, and we beat top-ranked Santa Barbara. If it weren’t for a power failure at conference champ El Camino who knows if we would have built on a 1-0 sets lead there (lost in 4). The big thing for us is we lacked consistency. I think we also did lose some of the confidence we built early in the year during conference.

“We made the playoffs and that was a goal for us. I feel we are going to have a good recruiting off-season and build on this year’s success. We want to be a regular conference and playoff contender.”