In the last home game of the
volleyball season, the
Vaqueros honored Captain
Jocelyn Abad and players
Jennifer Saylor and Jessica
Sanchez, the three sophomores
on the team. The ceremony had
the team pumped up, but all
good things must come to an
end.

The Glendale Vaqueros were
outplayed by the Citrus Owls as
they went down (20-30, 29-31,
30-28, 15-30). The game could
have gone the other way if not
for some bad breaks, though.
In the opening set, the Owls
got off to a quick 4-0 lead and
did not trail once. The Vaqueros
did cut the deficit to 8-6 but
could not “push through,” said
Glendale Head Coach Yvette
Ybarra. When Glendale scored a
point, Citrus would counter with
four of their own making the
game 15-7 and victory almost
out of reach.

Ybarra tried to motivate her
team to start playing with more
intensity. “The only player
doing anything is Abad,” she
said in the huddle.

The time-out did not help too
much as the Vaqueros never got
closer than within seven points.
The Owls basically dominated
the whole first set, holding leads
as high as 13. With the score at
29-19, a coach has two options:
give up on the set and look forward
to the next one or call a
timeout and tell your team to
pick it up. Ybarra chose the latter.
Even though the Vaqueros
lost the set 30-20, the players
now know that their coach is not
one to ever give up.

“We have to start playing
with more fire and just play better,”
said Ybarra. “The players
have to start playing better
defense and play like they want
to win.”

The second set was much
closer than the first and the
Vaqueros played much better.

Citrus held the lead early going
up 14-7. It looked like Citrus
would run away with it, just like
they did in the first set but the
Vaqueros picked up ten straight
points to take the lead to 17-15.
Citrus came back and the
game was tied at 22. It seemed
like Glendale would take the set
when they were up 29-27 and
needed just one more point for
the win but Citrus came back
and won 31-29. Saying
Glendale gave it away would be
an understatement.

“The players just did not want
to win for some reason,” said
Ybarra. “We need to push
through and win the sets that we
have game point in.”

“Our team just never gave up
and played with a lot of determination,”
said Citrus Head
Coach Tammy Knott.

Citrus got off to another
quick start in the third set going
up 5-0, causing Glendale to take
an early timeout. The Vaqueros
tied up the game at 14, but
Citrus did not falter and took a
24-20 lead. It seemed like the
Owls would sweep the
Vaqueros, but Glendale tied up
the game at 27 and won 30-28
sending the game to a fourth set.
After the set, Ybarra took setter
Lindsay Kline and Abad and
told them they had to motivate
the team to believe.

Well, believing and doing are
two different things. Glendale
might have believed they could
have won the fourth set, but
they certainly did not act on it.
Instead of playing like they
did in the third set, the Vaqueros
played out of focus and let the game get away. At 22-10, Citrus
could smell victory. Glendale
tried to rally but they needed a
miracle. Citrus ended up winning
30-15.

“I’m very disappointed,” said
Ybarra. “We had our chances to
win, but we could not get the
key points and make the key
stops in key moments in the
game.”

“How we play has to do with
the way we feel,” said Kline
who led the team in assists.
“Our intensity has to stay
up…we worked hard, but it’s
disappointing that we did not
win.” The Vaqueros now have
to look toward next season.
With three key players leaving,
including the captain, the
returning players will have to
step up, something that Ybarra
believes her players are up for.
“This team was better than
last year’s and we are hoping
next year’s team is better than
this year’s,” said Ybarra. “We
just have to get better, and hopefully
with recruiting, we will be
a better team.”

The future looks bright for
the Vaqueros, as they have most
of their core returning. If the
team recruits good players from
the incoming freshmen class,
the girls will be a team to be
reckoned with next season.