Late Run by Dons Not Enough in Loss to Visiting Orange Coast

Late Run by Dons Not Enough in Loss to Visiting Orange Coast
SANTA ANA - The Dons hosted Orange Coast College for their first home Orange Empire Conference match and fell to the visiting Pirates in three sets. Orange Coast (8-0, 2-0) defeated the Dons (3-6, 0-2) by scores of 25-16, 25-13 and 25-22.

The early stages of the first set belonged to Orange Coast as the Pirates jumped out to a quick 6-1 lead, with the Dons lone point coming on a Chloe Anderson kill. But the Dons would battle back, cutting the Pirates lead to just two at 12-10 on a Fernanda Ruiz block followed by a Zaria Saunders service ace.

However, Orange Coast would pull away from there with an 8-1 run to establish a 20-11 score. After the Pirates made the score 23-12, the Dons scored four-straight points, started by an Anderson kill and capped off by a Saunders ace, before the Pirates closed the set out for the 25-16 win.

Game two saw the Pirates jumping out early to an 8-1 lead before extending their lead to 17-5. The Dons would get points at 17-6 on an Esther Arroyo kill, 18-7 on a Ruiz block, 19-9 on a Ruiz service ace, two points on Anderson kills at 20-10 and 21-11 and one last point at 24-13 on a Daisy Ta'amilo kill. Eventually, Orange Coast would claim the set by a score of 25-13.

The third set proved to be the most competitive with the Dons grabbing the first two points before going on to a 5-3 lead following an Anderson kill. OCC would answer with a 6-0 run to take a 9-5 lead before the Dons came back with three-straight points on a pair of Anderson kills and a Myriah Kunipo-Aguirre kill.

Coast would again reclaim the lead and built it up to 17-12. But the Dons wouldn't concede the match and mounted a rally, led by Anderson with five kills to come back and take the lead at 20-19. But the night belonged to the Pirates as OCC closed out the set, and the match, with a final score of 25-22.