Volleyball falls to Irvine

You could blame the Corsair's bad luck regarding players' eligibility or injury, their heavy loss of starters from last year, or their renovation as a team at the beginning of a long season, but on Wednesday against Irvine Valley it was the small avoidable errors that kept the Men's Volleyball team from adding a "W" to their record. After losing a starting libero to a torn ligament and not being able to play their first string setter, freshman Daniel Penrod, due to ineligibility, the Corsairs were a little shaken up.  But sophomore setter Jose Ortega and his brother, freshman libero Jimmy Ortega stepped up accordingly and played well Wednesday night.  With two kills himself; Jose Ortega contributed greatly to the success experienced in the first two games.

Although Santa Monica seemed the much stronger team to most spectators, both teams were tied for most of the first game.  Sophomore opposite, Lance Kinningham, and freshman outside hitter Sean Foley lead the team in kills, and were a force at the net, but Santa Monica lost points due to missed serves and slow defensive moves.

Finally the Corsairs distanced themselves from Irvine's score, creating a four-point lead, 17-13, in game one.  Freshman middle Zach Brown eventually made the final kill, sealing the Corsairs first victory, 25-22.

With a pattern of starting off slowly, the Corsairs made some sloppy plays in the beginning of game two, calling for a timeout from Coach Mayer.  With the help of a powerful hit from Kinningham, the Corsairs got back into the game and tied up the score, 6-6.

After shanking a couple of passes in the back row, freshman outside hitter Pete Aronchick contributed greatly to the Corsairs net defense and racked up a few kills as well, finishing Irvine off with a stuff block on Irvine outside hitter Brandon Directo. The final score was 25-21.

After losing the third and fourth game the fifth game felt as though Santa Monica had thrown in the towel, and they quickly gave Irvine a succession of points.

Aroncheck and Kinningham showed a strong desire to fight, but two players can't win a game by themselves, and without very much support from their defense, the Corsairs lost the fifth game 7-15 and consequently the overall match, 2 games to Irvine's 3.

Despite the loss the Corsairs have showed great potential, as a brand new team should, and coach John Mayer thinks they have the "ability to be very good" if they become a more consistent team.

The Corsairs will try to rebound today against Orange coast here at SMC at 6pm.