Eduardo Miranda

The Daily Independent

The Cerro Coso volleyball programed ended its first season back on the court hosting Copper Mountain in the Coyotes home finale. The Coyotes swept the Fighting Cacti 25-12, 25-14, 25-23 to win their home finale in front of the biggest crowd of the season. The Coyotes ended their first year back with a 2-12-1 overall record and a 2-9-1 Inland Empire Conference record.

"Very happy for them that they executed everything that they wanted to do right," said Interim Coach Kim Young on the team's performance. "We were trying to run a quicker offense and they did an excellent job. We made some changes in the last set when it got kind of tight in the end. And they executed and I'm very proud of them."

Coach Young continued added that the players should feel good and know that they can compete with the other teams they faced in conference and non-conference. She admits the roster was short and that made it difficult with injuries and sickness, but they played their hardest and competed well. Young also added that the crowed in the home finale was the best crowd of the season and they were very excited to have the fans in attendance cheering on the players.

The Coyotes won the first two sets with ease as they were able to stop any late run from the Fighting Cacti but did face some challenge in the third and final set. The Coyotes began with a 4-1 lead behind Imani Parker's serving. After a kill from Beauleah Farmer, Cerro Coso led 5-1, but Copper Mountain scored the next two points and after being unable to hit the ball to the Coyotes side had the home team leading 6-3. Reese Wakeman was serving and helped build the Coyotes lead to 10-4. The Coyotes built a 12-7 lead when the Fighting Cacti made a small run that cut the lead to two, 13-11.

The home team scored the next two points for a 15-11 lead, but Copper Mountain continued to keep it close cutting the lead to 16-13. Cerro Coso were able to build a four-point lead at 18-14 but the visitors went on to cut it to two at 18-16. A kill from Wakeman stopped the Copper Mountain run and led to the visitors calling a timeout trailing 20-16. After the timeout, both teams traded points but the Fighting Cacti tied the set at 23-23 forcing a Coyotes timeout. Coming out of the timeout, the Coyotes made an impressive defense save to keep the visitors from taking a lead and then found Czaja for a kill to force a Copper Mountain lead with a 24-23 lead. After the timeout, Copper Mountain controlled the Coyotes serving and the Coyotes controlled the visitors attempt for another Czaja kill to win the set and match.