Women’s Volleyball: Vikings drop a pair of opening-day matches at home

It wasn't quite the way new women's volleyball head coach Trisha Marx envisioned the start of her Long Beach City College career. On Friday, the Vikings opened the regular season with a 3-0 (26-24, 25-17, 25-18) loss to San Diego Mesa, followed by a 3-1 (25-18, 25-16, 21-25, 25-15) defeat to Chaffey College at home as part of the LBCC Quad Tournament.

Sophomore outside hitter Bra'Shawnda Byrd (Poly HS) did all should could to keep the Vikings in both contests, leading Long Beach with nine kills against Mesa to go with a match-high 15 kills vs. Chaffey.

Long Beach nearly shocked Mesa early. The Vikings had set-point after an ace by sophomore Daniela Sanchez (Mayfair HS) in the first gave them a 24-21 lead over the defending Pacific Coast Athletic Conference champions. But Long Beach couldn't seal the win. Three LBCC errors along with a pair of Mesa kills gave the Olympians the 26-24 victory.

From that point, Mesa cruised to 25-17 and 25-18 wins to close out the sweep.

Later against Chaffey, Long Beach found itself trailing 2-0 before finally coming alive in the third. With the score tied at 12, Long Beach went on a 5-0 run behind the serving of Sanchez that included a pair of aces to take a commanding 17-12 advantage. The Vikings once again found themselves with set-point at 24-21, but this time a middle kill from freshman Chanel Brown (Lancaster HS) secured the win.

But thought of a rally came up short in the fourth. Chaffey used a 9-3 run midway in the set to jump out for good at 21-11 before wrapping up the 25-15 victory.

Brown also had a good afternoon for Long Beach, collecting 12 kills and five blocks vs. Chaffey to go with four kills and two blocks against Mesa. Sophomore Brianna Ritzius (St. Anthony HS) totaled 28 digs over the two matches.

Long Beach, now 0-2, returns to action on Wednesday (Sep 10) when it travels to Golden West College for a 5 pm non-conference match.