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Thursday, Oct. 01, 2009
Merced College volleyball finds going rough in Central Valley Conference
Jessica Casey gathered her young Merced College volleyball team and exclaimed, "Welcome to the Central Valley Conference."
The Lady Devils' conference opener Wednesday evening indeed had been an eye-opening experience.
College of the Sequoias came ready to play and needed just over an hour to dispatch Merced College, 25-18, 25-20, 25-17 on the Blue Devils' home court.
Particularly disappointing for Casey was MC's lack of energy -- something the Lady Devils usually overflow with.
"I told the kids after the game that this is the CVC," the coach said. "This is the level of competition we can expect every single night, and we need to be prepared to match it."
MC's offense struggled for most of the evening, allowing COS to race out to a 16-7 lead in the opening game.
Cassie Fensin tried to be the spark to ignite the Lady Devils.
The freshman middle blocker had two kills, three blocks and an ace in the opening game.
With Fensin leading the charge, MC ran off six straight points to cut the deficit to 16-12.
Unfortunately MC (0-1 CVC, 4-4) couldn't finish off games.
"We'd be right there in the games and then it would all go downhill," Fensin said. "We were giving the effort, but we just couldn't get it going."
A good portion of the credit for that goes to the Giants' service game.
Led by Jordan Blatner's match-high four aces, COS (1-0, 4-1) gave MC fits with 10 aces.
The Giants complemented their serves with a handful of big hitters.
Blatner had a match-high 12 kills to go along with Jeannette Larsen's seven and Taylor Fahrni's six.
MC struggled to answer.
Gianna Bandoni had a team-high seven kills, but no one else on the team had more than three.
Setter Laura Meller had a team-high 16 assists for MC.
"We need to get more production from all our hitters," Casey said. "Our kids should be getting double-digit kills.
"The frustrating part is they're a much better team than this. They've seen what it will take, now they have to respond."
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