The Bakersfield College volleyball team defeated Antelope Valley before dropping three-of-four in the San Diego Mesa tournament.
The Renegades beat AVC in a one-sided match, 3-0, by the scores of 25-7, 25-18, 25-15.
After that game, BC had about 10 days off before traveling to San Diego.
The Renegades went 1-3 in the tournament placing eighth out of the 16 teams there.
Their first match there was against Grossmont College from El Cajon. They wound up beating GC 3-0 with the scores of 25-16, 25-23, and 25-23.
BC lost their first match to Cypress College, the eventual winners of the tournament. The Renegades lost by the scores of 15-25, 20-25, and 10-25.
They went on to lose the next two to San Diego Mesa 0-3 (14-25, 19-25, 20-25) and Moorpark 1-3 (21-25, 16-25, 25-18, 20-25).
Coach Carl Ferreira spoke about how the youth of his team was something they struggle with.
“I really wasn’t that surprised at that result, I mean I would say with a very, very young team, we have a ways to go before we’re elite. But I absolutely believe its possible, we have to understand the steps that we’ve got to take to get there,” he said.
“Also, numbers don’t lie. We try to play to a standard every single day. We’ve been able to play to that standard against lesser competition but you’ve got to play to that standard against elite competition.”
He went on to discuss improvements that could be made and how his role as the coach comes into play.
“The team relies on me to give a thorough evaluation on what transpired and what new action we’re going to take in order for that to happen,” said Ferreira. “We’ve got to attack and serve, our two critical areas, we’ve got to focus and improve on. And we just have to understand what we need to work on and take the appropriate action to work on.
“You’ve got to be a better athlete day in and day out, you have to have a full engagement in knowing you have an opportunity every single day to train,” said Ferreira. “I think our players are still learning how to train every day.”
The team played as well as Ferreira felt they could, but he was glad to see some of the young talent step up to the level of competition and those that are learning to do so with every match.
“I have a lot of players who have no idea what it takes at the highest level so we’ve come back with awareness,” he said.
“But I was real pleased with Mary Maiocco’s setting ability and Samaiyah Wilkins’s ability to attack and we passed the ball well.
“Ashley Simpson has done a great job for us, she’s leading us in attacking, and Rachel Christian has done a great job passing.”