Rams remain undefeated in conference

The Fresno City College women’s volleyball team went through a hard-fought match where they would defeat Taft winning the series 3-1 to improve to a 12-4 overall record. They also have sole possession of first place in the Central Valley Conference, as well as keeping their conference winning streak alive and intact.

Before the game, both FCC and Taft shared similar records. FCC was 11-4 (5-0) and had a 19-game conference winning streak on the line, Taft had an 11-8 (5-0) record with five straight conference wins. With both teams tied for first place in the conference, made this match one of the top regular seasons games to see.

The series started off in a stand still as both teams were neck and neck to start off the first set in the series. The first set starts as both teams were sharing points across the board as they were both tied at 7-7 early in the first. This wouldn’t last long as the Rams would begin starting a rally against the Taft Cougars that started with a kill strike by Fresno’s Nyeisha Brown to force seven unanswered points. The Rams would win the first set 25-17. This would be an ongoing event in the game that Fresno’s Alexis March would refer to her team’s rallies as they would play a huge part in the series.

“We have this thing that happens where once we get on a roll, we get on a roll,” March said. “We feed off of the energy from each other that makes us want to do better and to finish the set with everything we got”.

The second set would start off the way that the first set ended as the Rams would take an 3-0 early lead. The Cougars would not go away without a fight as they turned the tide as they would tie the set 11-11. There was a point when the Cougars would take control as they would take a three point lead over the Rams 19-16 forcing the Rams to call a timeout.

After the timeout, the Rams would make a complete turnaround as they would close the gap with great plays from Jenna Goldsberry and Sydney Rigby to cut the Cougar lead to one. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough as the Cougars would hang on scoring six out of the last seven to win the second set 25- 20 to tie the series at one apiece. Sydney Rigby talked about how tough of a team Taft was and what their team ways showing them on the court.

“They had a lot of determination pushing us to our limit. They were scrappy, playing hard and not letting a whole lot of balls drop,” Rigby said.

The third set would start off similar to how the first set did as they went back and forth off each other, not just in points as each team changing ball possession in a single set. It was after this where the Rams would find their stride by scoring four unanswered points in a 15- 11 lead midway through the third. This rally would continue as the Rams would score another 7-0 run to take the third set in dominating fashion in 25-14 set victory to take a 2-1 series lead. Rams head coach Tracy Ainger-Schulte would talk about her team’s scoring ability over the course of the game.

“In some series we did well like the first one was a good series for us, we let the second one get away from us,” Ainger-Schulte said. “We also had a lopsided victory in the third and fourth to close it out, so if we do what we need to do, these things should be happening.”