Nora Troppmann, Dani Schoen and Erianna Williams led American River College volleyball’s scoring with all three players scoring over 10 points each in the volleyball team’s 25-20, 25-20, 25-15 first round playoff victory over City College of San Francisco.
ARC came out looking energized and strong, getting a fast point off a serve from CCSF.
During the first set, ARC and CCSF went back and forth, with ARC eventually pulling away and to a sizeable lead.
ARC seemed to get comfortable and let CCSF score a couple easy points before quickly rallying back to finish off the first set.
CCSF looked to be defeating itself mentally, failing to serve properly which in turn allowed ARC to pull away during the set.
Though CCSF started with poor play, ARC players knew they couldn’t allow themselves to get off their game.
“We knew they would be a good team and respected them as a serious competitor during practice and while playing tonight,” setter Monica Udahl said.
ARC continued to play with great focus all the way through the second set, led by Erianna Williams.
“I played well, we played well as a team. We got a lot of digs and kills so yeah I think we did a good job,” Williams said.
CCSF tried to have another resurgence but struggled to pull something to win the set and fell again when ARC scored another five unanswered points to close out the second set 25-20.
The intensity rose from both teams as CCSF served to begin the third and what would be final set of the match.
ARC played at its strongest in the third set, breaking out to a big lead early as it won the set 25-15 to win the match.
CCSF had no chance, falling behind early by a large margin because of ARC’s defense, which kept CCSF to only 15 points.
“(I’m) real happy with the energy and the intent to take a step forward in playoffs,” said ARC head coach Gabe Garner about how pleased he was with the team’s performance.
Gardner said that in order to keep going, “the biggest thing is having the mentality of competing.”
