The VC volleyball team overmatched visiting Citrus College, sweeping past the Owls 25-15, 25-19, 29-27 at the Athletic Event Center Friday evening. Callie Cahill and Daphne Raymond led with eight and seven kills, respectively while Makena Schaumloeffel was nails on the serve with five aces and scoring on 10 of 15 attempts in the match.
VC was dominant against the Owls early, opening up a solid lead and maintaining it throughout the first set. A kill by Cahill and a pair of aces by Viola Barrios doubled up the owls, 12-6, and Talia Behrens winner maintained the advantage at 16-10. Raymond and Barrios produced big swings to extend the lead to 22-14 before Barrios' kill secured the first set for the Pirates, 25-15.
After a 4-4 start, Cahill gave VC a 5-4 edge and Lexi Brinkman's big swing made it 8-4. Giannamay Tayco recorded a solid dig before Raymond and Brinkman secured winners for a 13-8 lead, forcing a Citrus timeout. Cahill hit a pair of big winners soon thereafter and the Pirates captured set No. 2, 25-19.
The Owls appeared to wake up a bit in the third set, holding leads of 6-3 and 16-11 before reaching set point at 24-19. Raymond's kill gave the serve back to the Pirates, still down four before Schaumloeffel served five straight winners to bring Ventura back to a 25-24 margin. Citrus survived a pair of match-points by the Pirates, but ultimately VC was too much for the Owls clinching victory in the match with a 29-27 set win.
Shai Daniels recorded five kills with a team-best 11 digs and Schaumloeffel added eight digs to the Pirates' defensive effort. Skylar Rutherford and Natalie Bair each handed out nine assists while Liz Schalde added seven.
Ventura heads on the road twice next week, traveling to Saddleback on Wednesday Sept. 18 before heading to Santa Monica on Friday Sept. 20.