In a hard-fought matchup, the Riverside City College Tigers’ comeback effort came up just short against Irvine Valley College on Sept. 24.
The Tigers straight away took off with a 6-2 lead. They had the Irvine Lasers struggling to get past their defense. After a few big plays from Irvine and critical errors from the Tigers, the Lasers managed to tie the game at 10-10.
As the first set continued, the Lasers gained more control of the game and took the lead. The rest of the first set would be very competitive, but Irvine would win 25-23.
“We definitely struggled with picking ourselves up after a mistake, but I think at the end we really got better.” middle blocker Jayden Franchere said.
The second set started very competitively, with both teams going back and forth.
As the set continued, the Tigers seemed to have the edge, but team errors held them back, allowing Irvine to take the lead and never look back. The Lasers would win the second set 25-18.
The third set, the Tigers took a 5-1 lead in the beginning, but Irvine would quickly come back and tie the game. Both teams continued trading points, but Riverside got the advantage and had a 19-15 lead before Irvine took a timeout.
After the timeout, Irvine started making a comeback and trailed the Tigers 22-20. Riverside would then take a timeout to recuperate. Irvine continued to take charge, taking the lead 24-23, before RCC took another timeout.
The rest of the set remained tense, but after two attack errors from Irvine, Riverside won the set 27-25.
“I think we just needed to let the first two sets go and start over, move onto the next one,” setter Aurora McCulley said.
The fourth set saw the Tigers take an 8-1 lead in the beginning. The Lasers, just like the first set, however, would tie the set at 12-12. The rest of the set remained a close battle, but Riverside pulled through and won the set 25-23.
Irvine went on to take an 11-5 lead to start the fifth set. But after a timeout from Riverside, the Tigers caught up and trailed behind them 13-12, forcing Irvine Valley to take a timeout. In the end, the Lasers won the game by winning the set 15-13.
“I felt like we played a very offensive game, and I think we did the little things well, and that’s something we’ve been working on in practice,” said assistant coach Kyle Taylor “Even though it is a loss, it’s something that we are going to keep our heads high.”
Riverside will look to turn things around on the road when they face Fullerton College on Sept. 26.
