The VC beach volleyball team is in th midst of another marvelous May by advancing to the 3C2A State Tournament and by sending two duos to the 3C2A State Pairs Tournament at West Valley College. The Pirates No. 2 team of Kylie Ibbotson and Alba Romanos Gracia came into the Southern California Regionals as the No. 20 seed in the 32-team draw at El Camino College, but far exceeded those expectations. They swept the No. 13 seed and the host school's No. 2 team 23-21, 21-18 their first match to secure their state berth before defeating the No. 4-seed, Irvine Valley's top pair, 21-15, 21-19, to move into the quarterfinals. After allowing teammates and VC's No. 1 pair to move to the semifinals, Ibbotson and Romanos Gracia pushed the tournament's top seeded pair from El Camino in their three-set loss, 14-21, 21-12, 14-10. After the match, without much difference between a seventh and eighth place finish, the Pirates bowed out against Long Beach to prepare for the state team finals coming up this week.
Women's track and field standout Sophia Godina is having a breakout season. The sophomore from Rio Mesa High School had an outstanding Western State Conference championship meet this past weekend, winning the 1500m run in 4:49.93, edging out the second-place runner by less than a second. She also earned a silver medal in the 800m run and claimed bronze in the 5k run. In last week's preliminaries, she came in fourth in the 10k run for four individual places. Additionally, she ran a leg on the 4x400m relay that placed sixth. This demanding physical effort helped the Pirates finish third overall in the WSC out of 11 competing teams.
The Pirates' men's tennis team is back in the state championship match led by Lucas Abreu. The sophomore from Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil produced incredible results in a pair of emotionally draining playoff matches last week. In the regional semifinal, he teamed up with Cody Ray Emery to win at No. 1 doubles and was ahead in his No. 3 singles match when VC avenged a loss from earlier in the season defeating Riverside, 5-1. In the SoCal final on Saturday, Abreu again paired with Emery to win at No. 1 doubles and provided the match clinching point at No. 3 singles in Ventura's victory over Western State Conference foe Glendale. Ventura will host the 3C2A State Championship on Wednesday April 24 against American River at 10:00 am at the VC Tennis Center.
The VC beach volleyball team is alone on top of the Western State Conference standings seeking their fourth conference title in the past six seasons. Ventura's No. 5 team of Liz Schalde and Skyler Rutherford helped push the Pirates back on top last week with an exciting three-set victory over Santa Barbara to clinch a 3-2 Pirate victory over the now second-place Vaqueros. Schalde, from Lemoore, CA, and Rutherford, a Nordhoff High School product, won their first set against SBCC before dropping the second, setting up their third-set heroics. With the match tied at 2-2 and both teams huddled around the court, the VC pair clinched the win with a 15-7 triumph in the set, sending the team into a wild celebration.
AJ Ryland had a round for the ages last week on Monday at the Western State Conference event at Antelope Valley Country Club. The sophomore from St. Bonaventure High School carded a 7-under 65 to claim medalist honors in the meet by four shots. The low score also set a record as the best round every turned in by a Pirate golfer in the history of the program. The 2023 All-WSC performer is on his way to the honor again this season as he leads all VC golfers with a 73.3 average per round in conference play, 2.2 strokes over par.
Although it has been a difficult season for the Pirate softball team, there have also been many positives on the field, including the play of Savanna Higgins. The freshman had been the anchor defensively for VC and is also leading the team in hitting at .434/.484/.717. She leads the team in triples and home runs and is tied for the team's best hit total. She is second on the squad in runs scored and runs batted in. The Ventura High School product also has a .957 fielding percentage with four errors in 60 fielding chances at shortstop. Last week Savanna had a pair of hits, including a triple, in Ventura's victory over Oxnard.
Ventura College Men's Tennis has been dominant in the Western State Conference for the better part of two-plus decades. The Pirates reasserted that by closing out Glendale 6-3 last week to clinch at least a share of the WSC crown for the 19th time in the past 22 full seasons. The game-winner came from sophomore Julian Tellez, who claimed the final game of his suspended match at No. 4 singles, and he had also won earlier in No. 3 doubles with Edgar Ploquin. The Taft High School graduate also claimed a pair of points on Friday in VC's 9-0 sweep of Orange Coast. On the year he is 10-3 in singles play, mostly at the Nos. 3 and 4 slots, and 8-4 in Nos. 2 and 3 doubles.
The Pirate baseball team took two of three games against Oxnard last week, including a 17-3 rout in the middle game of the three-game set. First baseman Haiden Letzing's performance at the plate stood out among many solid hitting exhibitions by Ventura against the Condors. The sophomore from Vancouver, BC batted 6-11 in the series, knocking in eight runs and scoring four more for the week. He had five RBI in VC's big win on Thursday and knocked in three more runs in the Pirates' 8-3 victory in the season finale.
The VC women's basketball team advanced to the 3C2A State Sweet 16 last week with a pair of victories in the Southern California Regional Playoffs. Leading the way for Ventura was freshman forward Alexa Coubal who posted a pair of double-doubles in the two Pirate wins. The Thousand Oaks High School graduate scored 17 points with 17 rebounds on Wednesday against San Diego City before tying for the third-highest point total in program post-season history with 31 at Irvine Valley Saturday. She also pulled in 11 boards to lead the Pirates to the upset victory.
The Pirates' men's swimming and diving team finished first at last week's Western State Conference No. 1 at Santa Monica Friday. Leading the charge was freshman Cameron Habib, swimming for the orange and black for the first time. The Newbury Park High School product captured a pair of individual golds, winning the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events with marks of 22.47 and 49.24, respectively. Additionally, he was part of the 200-yard medley relay team along with Merrick Giles, Nick Santander and Michael Soho, winning first with a mark of 1:44.70, 4.31 seconds faster than the runners-up. The same quartet took to the pool in the meet's finale and won the 200-yard freestyle relay in 1:27.26, 6.85 seconds ahead of second place and less than a second off the VC school record of 1:27.24.
The VC men's and women's track and field teams hosted the first full-team event of the 2024 season last Friday, the Western State Conference Relays. On of the meet's standouts was Pirate sophomore Erick Tienda. The Rio Mesa High School graduate produced gold medal finishes in both the 5k run and the 3000m steeplechase events. Tienda broke the tape in 15:58.98 in the 5k and recorded a mark of 9:53.10 in the steeplechase. He also teamed up with Andrew Stuart, Joseph Moore and Angel Cano to win silver in the (1, 1, 2, 4) sprint medley relay.
VC's swimming and diving teams opened their 2024 season on Saturday hosting the Western State Conference Larry Baratte Invitational, named after Ventura's late Hall of Fame coach. Freshman Ella Montano made a splash in her Pirate debut winning the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:09.49, nearly five seconds ahead of her next-closest competitor. The Ventura High School product also finished third in the 50-yard freestyle and swam the breaststroke leg of the women's 200-yard medley relay team that claimed bronze as well.
The Pirates' women's tennis team opened their 2024 campaign with an exciting 5-4 win at Fullerton College last week. Leading the way was Alexis Schmidt who was a double-winner on the day. The sophomore from Oxnard started the day with an 8-0 sweep in No. 1 doubles with partner Nicole Iannacone. With the Pirates ahead 2-1 heading to singles play, Schmidt claimed her No. 1 match 6-4, 6-0 to help put Ventura on its way to victory.
Pirate baseball opened the 2024 season over the weekend hosting Northern California No. 2-ranked San Joaquin Delta. Freshman right hander Dominic Bayless made quite the splash in his VC deubt in Game 3 of the series. The redshirt from Westlak High School pitched into the fifth inning, scattering four hits and allowing two runs with two strikeouts against the Mustangs, giving head coach David Soliz his first win as the skipper of the Pirates.
The Pirates' women's basketball team is poised for another playoff run as the season approaches its final four weeks of the regular season. A big reason behind the team's success is first year guard Sam McKenzie. The Oxnard High School product, who is also a standout track and field athlete at VC, is averaging 13.1 points, 4.8 rebounds, and a team best 2.4 steals per game for Ventura, who is off to a 3-1 start in Western State Conference play. In last week's narrow defeat at Moorpark, McKenzie netted 22 points to lead the Pirates. She followed that up with a seven-point, eight-rebound performance in VC's victory over LA Pierce.
The VC men's basketball team captured their first two Western State Conference North Division games last week, defeating Oxnard and Cuesta. Leading the charge was freshman guard Dominik Contreras who totaled 39 points and 12 rebounds in the two-game week. The Oxnard High School product had a career night Saturday at Cuesta, totaling 32 points on 13-18 shooting from the field, including a 5-10 night from beyond the 3-point arc.
The VC football team had another storybook season come to an end on Saturday in the Southern California Football Association championship game. Despite the loss, the Pirates had a solid showing as one of the state's final four teams. Leading VC's effort on offense Saturday was freshman wide receiver Eli Aragon. The Oxnard High School product led Ventura with 14 pass receptions for 116 yards, keeping the Pirates in the game until the final stanza with two touchdown catches. On the season, Eli had 62 catches for 753 yards and nine scores helping VC to its fourth straight Northern Conference title. For his outstanding effort in the post-season,
VC Athletics had a huge Thanksgiving week as the Pirate football team won its SCFA semifinal game at Fullerton and the Ventura volleyball team swept a pair of playoff games to advance to their first 3C2A State Elite Eight since 2000. Leading the way were some impressive individual performances, including Kylie Ibbotson's two games on the court and Lamonte James' outstanding effort on the field.
Pirate sophomore Sophia Godina finished a stellar cross country career Saturday by finishing runner-up at the 3C2A State Championships in Fresno. The Rio Mesa High School product ran in the top two for the entire 5k race, but every move she made in the final mile was answered by her opponent. Even still, she finished second by 1.29 seconds completing a season in which she claimed gold or silver in each race, including the Pirates' first women's individual Western State Conference champion since 1994.
The VC women's basketball team opened the 2023-24 season with three consecutive victories at the Wild West Shootout at West Los Angeles College in Culver City. At the head of the charge was an unlikely leader in freshman forward Alexa Coubal. The Thousand Oaks High School product and former Notre Dame University track and field athlete has returned to the hardwoods for the first time in eight years and she averaged a team-best 12.7 points and 8.3 rebounds per game. Coubal shot 58 percent from the floor (14-24) and 77 percent from the free throw line (10-13) in the three Pirate triumphs. On Saturday, she was a perfect 7-7 from the floor with a double-double of 19 points and 13 rebounds.
The Pirate volleyball team is tied atop the Western State Conference North Division looking for its third straight conference title and fourth in the past five seasons with one game remaining on the league docket. Sparking the return to the top is libero Autumn Rojelio. The sophomore from Buena High School is second in the state with 5.77 digs per set and she came up big when the Pirates needed her most last Friday. VC defeated Santa Barbara in four sets behind Rojelio's 28 digs to climb even with the Vaqueros and Moorpark atop the WSC standings. Rojelio has been the heart and soul of the Pirates for her two seasons.
Freshman utility player Michael Soho was a steady presence all weekend with 11 goals, five assists and three steals over a four-game undefeated set for the VC men’s water polo team. Meanwhile, Freshman defensive back Zane Carter had 11 tackles, five solo, in the Pirate football team’s 38-20 win over Bakersfield Saturday.
The VC men's cross country team produced its best finish in the Western State Conference Championships in six years on Friday, reaching the podium in third place as a team. Leading the charge for the Pirates was sophomore runner Erick Tienda. The Rio Mesa High School graduate earned All-WSC honors finishing in 12th place overall out of 100 competitors in the field. His time of 23:10 for the 4-mile course helped Ventura earn 104 team points to finish in third place as a team, the best finish since 2017's runner-up standing.
Reaching the top is one thing, staying on top is something completely different. After one round of Western State Conference play, the Pirate volleyball team is once again tied for the top spot in the conference, led by sophomore outside hitter Kayla Murdoch. The Thousand Oaks High School product is once again among the state leaders in kills, kills per set, hitting percentage and total points scored, including Top-5 rankings in kills per set and points per set. Last week she recorded 35 kills, 15 digs and three blocks. Wednesday against Santa Barbara, Murdoch had 19 kills while hitting .412 as VC climbed back into first place in the WSC North.
With six home games in four days, the VC women's water polo team enjoyed some home cooking last week. The Pirates, who entered the week ranked No. 8 in the state, won five of the six outings, with the one loss coming in a Top-10 match-up on a golden goal in the third overtime period. Leading the way was freshman utility player Ella Montano. The Ventura High School product led Ventura (16-4, 2-0) on offense with 18 goals, 10 assists and seven drawn exclusions. Defensively she recorded 10 steals and played multiple positions, including center defense at times.
The VC men's cross country team placed fourth of 12 teams on Friday at the Western State Conference with room to move up before the end of the year. Adrian Valdez outraced teammate Erick Tienda for the Pirates' best individual finish at fifth place. The Oxnard High School product ran the 4-mile course at Oxnard's College Park in 20:39, two seconds ahead of Tienda and 24 seconds behind the race winner. Valdez helped VC earn 94 team points, 10 behind runner-up Glendale and just two points behind Moorpark in third. Valdez and his teammates will look to move Ventura up in the standings at the WSC Championships Oct. 20.
In recent history, the Pirate football team has had a long line of successful quarterbacks. The program may have found the next man up Saturday as VC signal caller Chris Irvin had an outstanding day to lead Ventura to a 32-28 come-from-behind win at Allan Hancock College. The freshman from Couer D'Alene, ID completed 83 percent of his passes, 34-41, for 307 yards and four touchdowns. Just as important, he did not throw an interception over the course of the triumph in the Northern Conference opener. Irvin completed throws to 10 different receivers, including a 37-yard scoring strike to Eli Aragon for the game-winner with 4:26 remaining in the game.
The VC women's water polo team owned San Diego over the weekend with four wins, two each at the Miramar and Southwestern mini tournaments. After a pair of blowout wins Friday, sophomore Ahna Davis was spectacular in the cage for the Pirates on Saturday, racking up 21 saves in seven quarters of play. Her key save in the finale against Miramar Saturday when the score was 8-8 brought the crowd to its feet and helped propel VC to their 11-9 win over the Jets to complete the perfect weekend. Additionally, the Porterville High School product filled a utility role, playing in the field spelling the centers, who played the weekend shorthanded due to illness with one of the regulars.
The Pirates have won four straight games, including a pair of 1-0 decisions last week in the Bay Area at Evergreen Valley and Hartnell. Team captain Andrea Ibarra has been a strong leader on the field for Ventura from her attacking midfield position. The freshman from Oxnard High School played all 180 minutes in the two victories up north and has been singled out for her outstanding play and leadership for the young Pirate side.
The Pirate cross country teams opened their season on Saturday at the Seawolf Invitational hosted by Sonoma State in Fresno's Woodward Park. Sophia Godina, an All-SoCal honoree a year ago, covered the 5k (3.1 miles) course in 18:32 to finish over 11 seconds ahead of her nearest competitor to win the race against athletes from Division I, Division II and NAIA four-year schools. The Rio Mesa graduate posted a time that would have finished sixth at last year's 3C2A state championships on the same course.
Kylie Ibbotson & Alba Romanos Gracia, Beach Volleyball - Week of Apr. 29
May 07, 2024The VC beach volleyball team is in th midst of another marvelous May by advancing to the 3C2A State Tournament and by sending two duos to the 3C2A State Pairs Tournament at West Valley College. The Pirates No. 2 team of Kylie Ibbotson and Alba Romanos Gracia came into the Southern California Regionals as the No. 20 seed in the 32-team draw at El Camino College, but far exceeded those expectations. They swept the No. 13 seed and the host school's No. 2 team 23-21, 21-18 their first match to secure their state berth before defeating the No. 4-seed, Irvine Valley's top pair, 21-15, 21-19, to move into the quarterfinals. After allowing teammates and VC's No. 1 pair to move to the semifinals, Ibbotson and Romanos Gracia pushed the tournament's top seeded pair from El Camino in their three-set loss, 14-21, 21-12, 14-10. After the match, without much difference between a seventh and eighth place finish, the Pirates bowed out against Long Beach to prepare for the state team finals coming up this week.
