The Cerro Coso volleyball team continued Inland Empire Conference competition hosting Desert. The Coyotes were looking for their first conference win and showed signs of being able to compete with their opponent but struggled to win sets, which led to them losing in three 25-16, 26-24, and 25-16.
Coyotes head coach Armando Gamez said on his team's performance, "I thought we played well in the first two sets. It really showed we can compete with them and compete with any team, and I was really happy with the execution."
In the first set, the Coyotes had seven kills on 29 attempts with three errors. In the second set, Cerro Coso had 10 kills on 37 attempts with six errors. In the final set, the home team had three kills on 21 attempts with four errors.
The Coyotes finished with 21 kills led by Madison Meinert with 10, Lexi Higer with seven, and Brooke Murphy with two. They had 17 assists with Ariel Meech leading the team with 10 and Abby Wuestenhoefer with seven. They had six aces led by Imani Parker and Wuestenhoefer with two each. They had 38 digs with Parker leading the team with 18, and Meinert, Wuestenhoefer, Karla Ortiz, and Meech all had five each.
The Coyotes kept the first set close at the beginning, trading points with the Roadrunners. Parker had back-to-back aces to give the home team an early 3-1 lead, but the visitors went on to take the lead. The Coyotes tied the set at 6-6 and 7-7, but could never retake the lead and had to call a timeout when Desert led 11-7. From there the visitors took control of the set and expanded the lead to 19-11 after a kill from Higer. Cerro Coso made a late push with multiple kills from Meinert and an ace from Wuestenhoefer to cut the deficit to 20-14, but Desert went on to take the set 25-16.
The second set had both teams trade points with Cerro Coso leading 8-6 after Parker's serve was broken. Wuestenhoefer had a strong serving moment with four points scored to give the Coyotes a 12-9 lead. From there both teams went back and forth with a few ties, but the Coyotes did not let the Roadrunners take the lead. The home team scored three points for an 18-15 lead forcing a Desert timeout, and the Coyotes continued to inch closer to winning the set.
After a kill from Ortiz, gave them a 22-17 lead the vistors scored the next two points to force a Coyotes timeout. Leading 22-20, Meinert scored a kill out of the timeout for a 23-20 lead, but Desert scored the next three points to tie the set. A kill from Meinert gave Cerro Coso a 24-23 lead, but the Roadrunners scored the next three to steal the set 26-24.
The Coyotes coach said on what his players could take from almost winning the second set, "just knowing that we can compete against other teams and now that we can compete it's about the last stage and winning."
The third set was much different as Desert had all the momentum after stealing the second set and jumped out to an early 14-2 lead. Higer got a kill after a timeout to cut the deficit to 14-3, but the visitors continued to control the set. A late kill from Meinert cut the deficit to 21-14, but Desert went on to win the set 25-16 and win the match.
The Coyotes coach said what his team could take from the loss is to execute the game plan and go after every single point like it's the last point. And when they do that, they have positive results, but when they don't, the results are not the best.
In between the first and second set, Cerro Coso celebrated the Burroughs High School volleyball program. Every member of the Burroughs volleyball program was brought onto the court and introduced to the crowd.
Cerro Coso continues conference competition traveling to San Bernardino Valley on Friday and then returns home to host Mt. San Jacinto on Wednesday. The first set begins at 5 p.m.