Fresno sweeps PC volleyball

Porterville College volleyball coach Dale Henderson was philosophical after Fresno City showed why its ranked No. 1 in Northern California and No. 3 in the state. It’s not like his team played that badly — actually the Pirates played quite well in games one and three. The Rams were just a little better.

Fresno (15-1, 7-0 in the Central Valley Conference) swept Porterville (12-5, 6-1) 25-18, 25-11, 27-25 in the showdown for CVC supremacy on Friday at PC. Fresno was particularly impressive in defense against Porterville’s powerful attack.

“They had a little better all-around athletes on their side,” Henderson said. “They were a little better defensively than us and they were a little more consistent than us. Game one and game three I think it was a pretty decent performance from us.”

PC (No. 6 NorCal, No. 17 state) jumped out to a 10-5 lead in game three before Fresno rallied to tie the score 10-10. Then for the rest of the game, Amanda Monge did everything she could to will PC to the win in game three. Monge scored four of PC’s next five points all with kills to give PC a 15-11 lead, including three straight kills to give PC a 13-10 lead. The third kill came after Monge made a spectacular save, then blocked the ensuing hit from Fresno and eventually finished off the point with her kill.

Fresno again fought back to tie the score 16-16 when another Monge kill gave PC a 17-16 lead and after the game was tied 18-18, Monge had two straight kills to give PC a 20-18 lead. After Allison Clem served for an ace to give PC a 22-18 lead, it looked like Porterville was on its way to winning game three.

But Fresno came back to take a 24-22 lead on a 6-0 run. Monge had another kill to help PC tie the score 24-24. Monge’s 11th kill of the game saved a second match point for PC, tying the score 25-25, but Fresno scored the last two points for the match.

PC had 9-6, 11-8 and 13-11 leads in game one and held its last lead at 16-15 on a Monge block. But Fresno went on a 10-2 run to end the game and continued to roll in game two. “Game two we kind of fell apart,” Henderson said.

Monge had 17 kills, 10 digs and was 6-of-8 serving, Nayeli Colunga had 10 kills and 13 digs, Clem ahd six kills and seven digs, Sam Sawyer had 28 assists, seven digs and was 8-for-8 serving and Kacey Markarian added 16 digs for PC.

Henderson is hopeful his team can give Fresno a run for its money when the two teams meet again in Fresno. “All we can do is get better from this (match),” Henderson said.

“We’ve just got to make a few adjustments. I think we’ll give them a better shot next time around.”