SMC drops Northern region opener to Santa Barbara.
As the crowd cheered, the focus was on the first Northern Region Conference game of the season on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2026. The Santa Monica College Corsairs started out dominating the court, welcoming Santa Barbara City College, Los Vaqueros, with 4 kills in less than two minutes in set one. Those four points were split kills scored by Ethan Lo and Demian Anisimov. Even though they started out dominating, the Corsairs lost the match 3-1.
Within the first nine minutes of set one, tensions grew on the court as the Vaqueros questioned the referees about making the right call. The Corsairs went silent as their opponents' energy heightened with frustration. Los Vaqueros head coach Bridget Kulesh rushed forward towards the referee, arguing whether or not the ball touched the floor or if the Corsairs truly saved it. The game continued, and the Corsairs scored a point, taking the lead once more.
“Oh yeah, so the ball, at least, we all thought that the ball hit the floor,” said Kulesh after the game. “But because of the way that the players were diving for the ball, none of the refs had a good enough angle to see if the ball hit the floor or if it actually hit the other person’s hand. So again, that’s one of those things that I can argue it, but if they can’t see it, then they, you know, there is nothing I can do about it,” said head coach Kulesh.
“Ole, Ole, Ole,” echoed through the Corsair gym as Santa Monica College continued to dominate with a score of 9-4. Both SMC and Santa Barbara were battling, with intense rallies creating suspense. Scores were rapidly being tied, court floors were slapped and serves became more aggressive. Los Vaqueros setter Devon Russell continued to be physically hit with the ball, causing him to drop to his knees multiple times.
The scoreboard was 13-11 within the second set, and Santa Monica was still battling for the lead after losing the first set 25-23.
“It was a clean game, and you know the best team won,” said Vaqueros' second setter Ayden Welch. “I just think we came out a little bit flat because it’s our first game of conference play. Maybe there were some jitters,” he continued. “But then, after we stole the first set and that kind of gave us some momentum back. And then after we dropped the second and got down twelve, nineteen, a third. We were like, all right, we gotta turn up…then we had that one rotation where we scored like ten straight points, and then from there, I mean, there was just no stopping us. We got into the groove!” They took the lead in the 3 set.
In the fourth set, with both teams tied at 15 points, the game started to get more exciting as both SMC and Santa Barbara tried to improve their North Region standings.
In the spotlight, Anisimov finished with 16 kills as the Corsairs chanted his name, including fans on the bleachers. On the other hand, a few “boos” could be heard from the crowd as he went up to serve.
“I know a lot of us are actually really sick and so we’re battling that as well,” said Rayan Montero libero/defensive specialist from the Corsairs, which only made the fight harder as SMC fell short 3-1 in its conference opener (25-23, 20-25, 25-21, 25-14).
The match reflected a competitive start to Northern Region, as SMC now turns its focus to its next Northern Region conference match against Moorpark College on Friday, Feb. 27, with the “goal to bounce back,” said head coach Chown.