Led by the return of middle back Erianna Williams, American River College’s volleyball team dominated Modesto Junior College in a 25-19, 25-14, 25-12 winning effort.
Williams suffered a stress fracture to her shins that has kept her out of action since a Sept. 30 win over Santa Rosa Junior College.
“Since coming back I’ve had to play smarter to avoid further damage to myself,” said Williams.
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In Williams’ absence, ARC had a shuffle its lineup, which affected the defensive front court the most. In practice this week Williams worked on her spike and hitting rotation.
ARC’s offense kept Modesto at bay in the first set with coordinated ball movement to set up scoring plays.
Modesto improved its gameplay in the second set but ARC kept its lead over Modesto with spikes from outside hitter Nora Troppmann and middle blockers Williams and Erin Fogarty.
The beginning of the third set started off with decisive plays from Modesto which landed them two points.
Though ARC had lost its momentum at the beginning of the third set, the team quickly regained focus and continued its onslaught of Modesto after getting its third point.
Williams complimented the synergy for ARC by her ferocious defense and impeccable spike.
Fogarty and Troppmann also obtained numerous spikes in the third set.
“I’m very happy with our performance tonight. It was great to see the girls enjoying themselves,” said head coach Gabe Gardner.
A timeout was called after consistent scoring from ARC.
Even though Modesto managed to keep the ball going back and forth, they weren’t able to keep up with the lead ARC had over them.
“We made sure to play hard and to our level this game. I feel like I could’ve stayed more consistent with trying to get easy goals,” said outside hitter Dani Schoen.
Playoffs for volleyball begin the week of Nov. 22.
