Glendale College Lady Vaqueros were ecstatic after playing an effortless game against West Los Angeles College, beating the visiting Wildcats 3-0 on Friday.

Losing four straight games in WSC was an apparent wake-up call to Glendale because the urgency in the way they played was evident. The only difference in this game was the obvious confidence that reverberated throughout their whole performance.

“It feels really great to finally win this after losing all those games,” said freshman Carissa Mathijssen. “Our communication was amazing. I felt like we played well as a team and we stayed extremely consistent.”
Mathijssen had six kills, second highest for the game.

Glendale defeated West L.A. 25-10 in the opening set and there was no turning back from that point as they outplayed West L.A. both offensively and defensively.
Ashleigh Diller led the team with seven digs.

The past few games displayed that their main weakness was their lack of communication during play, thus causing confusion as far as positioning went. It’s a breath of fresh air for fans to finally witness the team work on those mistakes and excel.
Along with the impressive defense that the team portrayed, they also showcased the incredible offensive prowess that they possessed.

Sophomore Beverly Gonzales led the team with 25 assists. It was sheer beauty to watch Gonzales set-up every single outside hitters, who in their own ways, swiped the ball down for points.

“We actually changed positions, which I have to say made me nervous coming into the game,” said Gonzales. “Leading up to this game we mainly worked on our services, hitting, spiking and being aggressive towards the ball.” Obviously, all the preparations leading up to the game paid off for them.

“In this game, everything is all about consistency, and it’s an understatement to say that we wanted them to be consistent,” said assistant coach Maria Olilang. “We wanted the girls to play every point, from point 1 to point 25 and I think they did that. This is a really important win, they really needed that.”

This was an important win indeed. With just one more game left, a loss would have put the Lady Vaqueros at 0-5.

“I’m glad that we finally got over our little slump,” said sophomore outside-hitter Aya Nakano. Nakano led the team with 11 kills and 5 aces. Nakano left the game with a big smile on her face. Before entering the locker room, she turned to say “I love coach!”

“The win came in at a perfect time. Sometimes when you play tough teams and you lose, you start to feel sort of defeated,” said Coach Yvette Ybarra. “The girls will probably get their confidence back, and I’m glad about that.”

“The only problem we have is that we need to work on our errors, even if we win – but we have 60 errors, that just can’t happen,” said Ybarra.

The Lady Vaqueros will face Santa Monica College on Oct. 28. The second round of WSC will begin on Oct. 31 against L.A. Pierce College.