The Taft College women's volleyball team came away with a split at Cosumnes River College on Friday, beating Shasta College 3-1 to open the day before dropping a heart-breaking five-set match to host CRC.
Freshman Lauren Pau-De Santos had a big day, totaling 23 kills and 24 digs over the two matches while sophomore Christy Hopfe also had an impressive 35 digs over the two contests.
The Cougars got off to a good start with the 25-22, 20-25, 25-23, 25-20 win over Shasta. Keala Skeele led the Taft offense with 12 kills in the win. Pau-De Santos posted 10 kills to go with nine digs and Madison Barcelona chipped in with nine kills and two blocks.
Hopfe had a match-high 20 digs and Elisia Brown paced the offense with 40 assists, three aces, and eight digs.
Taft couldn't keep the momentum going in the narrow loss to Cosumnes River. The Cougars won the opening set 25-22, but was on the brink of the loss after dropping the next two sets 25-15, 25-19. But the Cougars roared back in Set 4 with a thrilling 26-24 victory to tie up the match at 2-2 and force a deciding fifth set. Taft played well in the final set, but ultimately lost 15-12.
Pau-De Santos led TC with 13 kills and added 15 digs. Jasmine Chipen-li and Madison Barcelona both contributed 10 kills in the match. Brown had team-highs with 39 assists and 16 digs while Hopfe added 15 digs and two aces.
Taft, now 2-8 overall, returns to action on Wednesday (Sep. 18) at 6 p.m. when its hosts No. 3 state-ranked Fresno City College in both teams' Central Valley Conference opener.