STOCKTON – The Taft College women's volleyball team saw some of the state's top competition over the weekend while competing at the Delta Classic tournament in Stockton. Playing in four matches over two days, the Cougars went a respectable 2-2 at the event.
Taft opened the tourney on Friday facing defending state champion Feather River College and suffered a 3-0 (25-11, 25-17, 25-16) defeat. That was followed by another loss, this time 3-1 (25-21, 17-25, 25-19, 25-17) to Sierra College.
But the Cougars bounced back on Saturday to win its two matches. TC began the day with a 3-0 sweep of Shasta College (26-24, 25-18, 25-23) and closed out the weekend by beating Santa Rosa Junior College in a marathon five-set match (20-25, 25-21, 25-20, 23-25, 15-6).
Sophomore Jada Dias had a huge tournament as she totaled 75 kills and 59 digs over the four matches. In the four-set loss to Sierra, she posted a season-high 28 kills and 15 digs. In the 3-2 win over Santa Rosa, Dias led TC with 25 kills while adding 18 digs.
Freshman Bethany Himalaya put together a pair of strong matches on Saturday. She posted 14 kills and 26 digs against Shasta and followed that with 13 kills and 26 digs against Santa Rosa.
Freshman setter ShaCe Niu played well as she totaled 16 assists against Feather River, 49 assists and 22 digs vs. Sierra, 36 assists and 16 digs against Shasta, and 53 assists and 20 digs in the win over Santa Rosa.
Taft is 4-4 overall as the Cougars head into their Central Valley Conference opener on Wednesday (Sep. 14) at home against West Hills College Coalinga. Match time is set for 6 p.m.