Glendale college swept at home

NORTHEAST GLENDALE — Though the Glendale Community College women's volleyball team was swept in a Western State Conference match Friday night, it can at least take solace in the fact that one of its top players wasn't seriously injured.

Late in the first game of Glendale's 25-22, 25-17, 25-22 home loss against Santa Monica City College on Friday night, Glendale sophomore outside hitter Jessica Alvarez went full force near the net to get a loose ball but collided with Santa Monica's Melissa Tindall.

Alvarez, a Bellarmine-Jefferson High graduate, appeared to injure her right foot and was removed from the contest briefly with the score tied at 19. She returned at the start of the second game and played the bulk of the remainder of the match.

"The last thing you want to see is anybody get hurt, but she said she wanted to get back at it," Glendale Coach Yvette Ybarra said. "She came out and said she could play."

Alvarez finished with a match-best 12 kills for the Vaqueros, who dropped to 4-9 and 0-2 in conference entering Tuesday's conference road match against West L.A. Santa Monica (5-6, 2-0) got 10 kills from outside hitter Meagan Hauser and nine from middle blocker/outside hitter Vivien Reece.

Glendale sophomore setter Roxanne Domines said the Vaqueros struggled throughout parts of the contest.

"I thought we needed to all step up after Jess got hurt," said Domines, who finished with 28 assists. "Jess is the kill leader on the team, but her getting injured shouldn't affect our game because there are five others on the court.

"We just played as individuals and we had a lot of errors."

Things started out well for the Vaqueros, who jumped out to a 6-2 lead in the first game on an ace by freshman middle blocker Sara Kert. After Alvarez sustained her injury, Santa Monica closed out on a 6-3 run.

In the second game, Glendale closed to within 11-10 on a kill by Alvarez, but Santa Monica used a 10-2 run to extend its lead to 21-12.

The Vaqueros rallied from a 16-11 deficit in the third game when a kills by Alvarez knotted the game at 17.

However, Santa Monica got two kills from Hauser to complete the sweep.

The teams will meet again at 7 p.m. Nov. 2 at Santa Monica.