SANTA ANA, Calif. – Santa Ana volleyball continued Orange Empire Conference play on Wednesday night by hosting No. 23 Orange Coast College. After fighting for five sets, SAC fell to the OCC Pirates by a score of 3-2 (25-23, 25-16, 17-25, 20-25, 15-10).
The Dons had control throughout the first set, going up by as much as nine (19-10). But unforced errors and a late rally from the Pirates spoiled the hot start for Santa Ana as they dropped the set 25-23.
OCC took that momentum into the second set, fending off a hungry Dons team with a 25-16 win.
After finding themselves down 2-0, the Dons turned up the energy and fought back in the third set. Ashly Hernandez posted five kills in set the to lead Santa Ana to a 25-17 win, making it a 2-1 game.
Santa Ana continued to play with the same energy in the fourth set, taking it 25-20 to force a fifth a final set.
The fifth set started off fairly even but the Pirates began to pull away as they went into the break up 8-4. Santa Ana responded with a 5-2 run to cut the lead to one (10-9) but were plagued by unforced errors yet again, which led to OCC winning the set 15-10.
Hernandez finished with a match high 19 kills while Myrandah Zepeda chipped in with 16 and Elizabeth Merold posted 11. Ally Wardlow once again led the Dons in digs with 24 and setters Jordan Ninmer and Courtney Gomez both recorded 23 assists and two aces in the match.
UP NEXT: The Dons will be back on the road this Friday when they face Golden West at 6:00 p.m. in another OEC matchup.
Photos by Vivian Paloma
