SBCC played one of its best matches in weeks on Wednesday but still came up short in a 3-1 WSC men's volleyball loss at Long Beach City. The scores were 25-19, 25-20, 17-25, 25-21.
"We played a lot better tonight, we just ran into a team that was also playing a high level," said coach Matt Jones. "That was the best we've played in three weeks."
Nick May led Santa Barbara (6-7, 1-5) with 14 kills and a .324 hitting percentage. Evan Yoshimoto added 12 kills while Davis Grininger and To'o To'o had four blocks apiece. Grininger pounded eight kills in the middle and hit .778 with just one error.
Setter Drew Hogan dished out 41 assists and a team-high 11 digs. Long Beach hit .297 for the match and the Vaqueros weren't far behind at .270.
Relyea Speller, a 6-6 sophomore, topped the Vikings (11-2, 5-1) with 18 kills and Daniel Starkey added 16.
SBCC jumped out to a 14-8 lead in the third set and Shane Dyer closed out the 25-17 win by serving five straight points.
The Vaqueros open the second round of conference play on Friday when they host Santa Monica at 6 p.m.
