March 9, 2023

Warriors Go the Distance Again

Video Box Score

By Francisco Claudio

The Westcliff men's volleyball team found themselves in a five-set battle for the third game in a row as they hosted Arizona Christian last Tuesday.

After Tuesday the Warriors are 1-3 in five-setters as they came up short against the Firestorm (25-20, 21-25, 25-20, 19-25, 15-10).
 
It was all back and forth battle as both teams kept trading sets leaving the match up for grabs until the last moments.
 
The Warriors started slow and fell behind early on in the first set 11-6. They tried to make a push late in the first set but couldn't get below five points on the scoreboard, 25-20.
 
In the second set, Westcliff fell behind early on in what looked like the same pattern that had just occurred in the first.
 
But after being down 7-4, the Warriors started to get some momentum going as they strung together some good sequences to up 9-8.
 
Westcliff didn't let go of the lead after this point and went on to finish a competitive second set, 25-21.
 
The Warriors led in the third set but the match remained unpredictable as the Firestorm would go on their run and surge in the latter part of the set, taking it 25-20.
 
The fourth set was the most direct one as far as who led from beginning to end, as the Warriors took a 5-3 lead, and was never in trouble of losing it.
 
In the end, the Warriors weren't able to string together enough defensive stops in the fifth set as Arizona Christian took the win, in a non-conference match.
 
There were some notable performances in this five-set battle as Gabriel Pizza got 24 kills, five assists, and five digs.
 
Andy Jaszcynski had 13 kills and eight digs and Jordan VonBorstel added 10 kills too.
 
Pawel Tuz continued his impressive season notching 44 assists and four kills.
 
Libero Leonardo Garcia was huge defensively with 14 digs.

Up next, the Warriors travel to UC Merced, Friday, March 10.

First serve is scheduled for 5 p.m.