The Los Medanos Mustangs defended their home gym in a thrilling 3-2 series win over Yuba College. The series went the full five sets as the Mustangs won the first but then dropped the next two and had to win the final two sets to come from behind and get the victory. 

Noelle Mixon was all over the floor for the Mustangs as she not only led her team in killshots, but she also led in points and was second on the team in dig returns as she was able to perform well both on the attack and on the defense. Lauren Sobolick also put in a solid performance as she tallied in 11 killshots, 15 digs, and 17 points for her team. Lindsey Bradshaw was excellent on defense as she led her team in digs with 20 as her play came up big in many key situations throughout the game for the Mustangs squad. Kaily Speth and Leila Caralos were the teams top two servers as the two combined for 45 of the teams 52 total aces. 

The way the game started gave off the feeling the Mustangs were gonna run away with this series as in the first set they took a commanding 1-0 series lead with a dominant 25-16 set win and all seemed good for the Mustangs. However the next two sets were good but not great. The Mustangs were able to keep the sets close with scores of 25-20 and 25-21 but they ended up dropping both sets putting Yuba College in a match point situation needing only one more set to take home a win on the road. But the Mustangs crawled back into the match and tied up the series after a back and forth set four to even up the series at two sets a piece for both sides. 

In the all important do-or-die set five, the Mustangs were able to regain control and win the rubber match set by a score of 15-9 to secure a victory. The win saw contributions from everyone on the roster as almost everyone played in all five sets of the series. Yuba city played the Mustangs tough as during the series they did not commit any errors while the Mustangs committed multiple serving and blocking errors. However, the biggest difference between these two teams was the attacking game. The Mustangs had more than 50 total attacks than Yuba College did and LMC converted over 20 more of their killshots than Yuba City. While Yuba College’s defense was able to produce more blocks than the Mustangs, their attacking firepower just was not able to compete with the Mustangs attack. 

This win ended a two game losing streak the Mustangs were on and it was the first time they had won a set since their last win back on Sept. 21. Their record improves to 8-11 as they look to use this game as a momentum boost down the stretch of the season. The next home game for the Mustangs is on Oct. 5th against Contra Costa then two away games against Mendocino and West Hills.

To learn more about the Los Medanos Women’s Volleyball team, visit www.losmedanos.edu/volleyball/