The Sierras were too steep of a climb this time around for DVC women’s volleyball.

DVC lost 1-3 at home to Sierra College on Friday, Sept. 28. But it wasn’t due to a sluggish start.

DVC came out firing, building an 11-6 lead, highlighted by a Sandra Foster kill to Sierra’s back right corner. Sierra fought back with a 1-6 run to tie the set at 12 a piece, forcing coach Ponciano-Babb to take a timeout. “After a quick timeout, our front row woke up and started blocking and touching more balls,” said coach Ponciano-Babb.

Lindsay Wood and Sheila Tuvell combined for back-to-back blocks and Foster hit another kill for three straight points after the stoppage. At 21-18, Anya Sapozhnikov loaded up for a kill, then calmly tipped the ball into the vacated middle for a point.

The play that let everyone know the set was meant for DVC occurred at 22-21: a deflected Sierra spike spun out of bounds. Sapozhnikov sprinted towards it, punched it back to her teammates, and the point was eventually won by DVC.

Abbie Noland finished it off with a powerful kill put into two Sierra players, giving DVC the set 25-23. “We found ourselves serving aggressively which was great because it took Sierra out of their offensive scheme,” said Ponciano-Babb.

Whereas DVC led the entire first set, the script was flipped in the second set. Sierra got a quick 0-3 lead, aided by DVC miscues. Wood and Tuvell combined for a block once again to bring DVC within one at 5-6. DVC tied the set at 12-12, just as Sierra did in the first set, but that was the closest they got to a lead.

The remainder of the set was primarily a back and forth affair, with Sierra taking a one or two point lead and DVC evening the score. But a few tips into an unoccupied DVC middle contributed to Sierra pulling away, eventually winning the set 20-25.

With the match tied at one set each, the third set became a turning point. A Foster push shot gave DVC their only lead of the set at 2-1. Sierra proceeded to outscore DVC 11-24 the rest of the set, a set littered with hits into the net and miscommunications on potential assists.

After falling to a 5-9 deficit in the fourth set, DVC strung together a 5-0 run: kills by Foster and Tuvell, a Sierra net violation, a shank from Sierra, and a huge block by Wood. Sierra took a timeout at 15-13, leading to a 3-10 run, and Sierra never looked back. Another block by Wood closed the gap to 21-24 but the match ended with Foster hitting the ball into the net.

Coach Ponciano-Babb took positives and negatives from the overall close match. “Our goal was to dictate play and we did that for the first two sets and then again in the fourth set,” she said. “Both teams were pretty close in skill abilities and we ultimately made a few more errors than they did. Hopefully we’ll be able to bounce back for another tough week with Delta and Sac City, both on the road.”

DVC lost 1-3 at home to Sierra College on Friday, Sept. 28. But it wasn’t due to a sluggish start.

DVC came out firing, building an 11-6 lead, highlighted by a Sandra Foster kill to Sierra’s back right corner. Sierra fought back with a 1-6 run to tie the set at 12 a piece, forcing coach Ponciano-Babb to take a timeout. “After a quick timeout, our front row woke up and started blocking and touching more balls,” said coach Ponciano-Babb.

Lindsay Wood and Sheila Tuvell combined for back-to-back blocks and Foster hit another kill for three straight points after the stoppage. At 21-18, Anya Sapozhnikov loaded up for a kill, then calmly tipped the ball into the vacated middle for a point.

The play that let everyone know the set was meant for DVC occurred at 22-21: a deflected Sierra spike spun out of bounds. Sapozhnikov sprinted towards it, punched it back to her teammates, and the point was eventually won by DVC.

Abbie Noland finished it off with a powerful kill put into two Sierra players, giving DVC the set 25-23. “We found ourselves serving aggressively which was great because it took Sierra out of their offensive scheme,” said Ponciano-Babb.

Whereas DVC led the entire first set, the script was flipped in the second set. Sierra got a quick 0-3 lead, aided by DVC miscues. Wood and Tuvell combined for a block once again to bring DVC within one at 5-6. DVC tied the set at 12-12, just as Sierra did in the first set, but that was the closest they got to a lead.

The remainder of the set was primarily a back and forth affair, with Sierra taking a one or two point lead and DVC evening the score. But a few tips into an unoccupied DVC middle contributed to Sierra pulling away, eventually winning the set 20-25.

With the match tied at one set each, the third set became a turning point. A Foster push shot gave DVC their only lead of the set at 2-1. Sierra proceeded to outscore DVC 11-24 the rest of the set, a set littered with hits into the net and miscommunications on potential assists.

After falling to a 5-9 deficit in the fourth set, DVC strung together a 5-0 run: kills by Foster and Tuvell, a Sierra net violation, a shank from Sierra, and a huge block by Wood. Sierra took a timeout at 15-13, leading to a 3-10 run, and Sierra never looked back. Another block by Wood closed the gap to 21-24 but the match ended with Foster hitting the ball into the net.

Coach Ponciano-Babb took positives and negatives from the overall close match. “Our goal was to dictate play and we did that for the first two sets and then again in the fourth set,” she said. “Both teams were pretty close in skill abilities and we ultimately made a few more errors than they did. Hopefully we’ll be able to bounce back for another tough week with Delta and Sac City, both on the road.”