CYPRESS, CA – The Cypress College women's volleyball team (6-4, 2-2) came up short in their conference rivalry match up against the Fullerton Hornets (8-6,3-1) at home in four sets on Friday night (24-26, 25-19, 21-25, 20-25).
In the first set of the night, both teams came out with a lot of intensity. Cypress middle blocker, Alexis Flores, started out with a hot hand for the Chargers with a few kills and a key solo block to start off the night. Fullerton had Cypress up against the wall at set point when Mary Hicks came up big with a diving dig. The Hornets eventually came back to take the first set, 24-26.
Cypress came back strong in the second set and created their largest lead of the match with a serving run from Brittany Zavala. The Hornets' front row showed some power to come back and go point for point with the Chargers. The Chargers' outside hitter, Alondra Lamas put down the final kill to tie the match, 1-1.
The two teams battled it out the remainder of the night. Fullerton's hot hand, Saylor Frew, put down several of her own kills in key situations for the Hornets. Frew and teammate, Samaria Longstreet, found some holes in the Charger defense and took a 9-point lead towards the end of the third set. Cypress did not go down easy. The Chargers tied it up at 18-18, before Fullerton pulled away once more with a serving run from Arianna Requejo to win 25-19.
Heading into the final set, it looked like it would be another back-and-forth battle to start off. Fullerton took advantage of some miscommunication in the Chargers' defense and started to pull away. Fighting back once more, Hicks came through with a huge kill to start the rally. After several clutch points from the Charger's offense, it was not enough, and the Hornets took the victory, 3-1.
The Cypress volleyball team will be back in action next Wednesday night at Santa Ana starting at 6:00 pm.
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