Volleyball Battles No. 25 Riverside in Conference Opener

The Santiago Canyon College women's volleyball team battled No. 25 Riverside City College to the brink on Wednesday night in their Orange Empire Conference (OEC) opener on home hardwood. The Hawks fought to push the match to four sets after an impressive third-set victory, but ultimately fell in four sets by the final scores of 21-25, 21-25, 25-23, 21-25.

Santiago Canyon was close in every set, but unforced errors and spacing issues caused them to fall down the stretch. They succumbed 28 total errors on both sides of the net, but still produced a productive offense.

Career-high marks were set for each Hawks player in their first four-set match of the season. Leading the way was freshman hitter Chelsea Riedel who amassed a team-high and career high 21 kills on a whopping 53 attempts. She made a mere two errors leading to a .358 hitting percentage. She performed well on the backline leading to 12 digs which was the second-highest mark on the team.

Sophomore Nicole Rodrigues followed with an impressive 10 kills on 24 attempts while making just two errors. She chipped in seven digs and lofted up an assist and an ace.  Freshman Sophie Ziglinski hammered home seven kills and notched a team-high 16 digs. She finished with 10 total points after firing home three service aces.

Sophomore setter Peyton Speakman was the gear to the offense by tallying a season-high 37 assists and four aces. She also attempted 11 shots and found the hardwood on three.

Freshman Sarah Violett contributed five kills in four sets to go along with seven digs.