by Dennis McCall
Taft Midway Driller

After losing a five-set match to open the season against Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, the Taft College volleyball team took part in three sweeps but won only one of them.

They opened the sweep streak by losing to Hancock again, this time during a three-team mini-tournament at Cerro Coso College in Ridgecrest, but bounced back to sweep host Cerro Coso to finish the trip to the desert even.

Then the Cougars headed to Los Altos for another three-teamer and were swept by northern California powerhouses Foothill (25-16, 25-11, 25-15) and Sacramento City College (25-15, 25-13, 25-23).

Hancock swept both the Cougars and Cerro Coso to improve to 3-0.  That marked a good start for a team that won only three matches all of last year, losing 21.

The Bulldogs again did it with a solid defense, recording 55 digs, 20 more than the Cougars. 

Three Bulldogs had double-digit digs, the Cougars none.

The scores were all close: 25-23, 25-22 and 25-23.

Offensively, sophomore hitter Sweet Vaimoui led the Cougars with 13 kills out of 33 attacks.  Chelsea Wong had 8 and Baillie Jensen and Maeleen Hopeau 5 apiece.

On the defensive side freshman Halle Neher had 9 digs while Wong and Tara Kelley recorded 5 apiece.

Jensen and Vaimoui each recorded a block.

Setter Madeline Griffith tossed up 29 assists.

Wong led the way in the sweep of Cerro Coso (25-23, 25-20, 25-23) with 12 kills, followed by Vaimoui with 8, Hopeau with 7 and Jensen with 5.

Neher paced the defensive effort again with 8 digs, Griffith and Kelley had 7 apiece and Wong 6.
Vaimoui had 3 blocks and Wong 1.

Freshman Griffith had 32 assists and Wong 4 service aces.

Statistics on the matches in Los Altos were unavailable.