Volleyball

The No. 2 ranked Brahmas had the Rustlers from Golden West College seeing red Saturday, Nov. 26, as they took the second round regional playoff match in straight sets, moving on to the state championships.

Golden West College, ranked No. 13 in the state and No. 7 in Southern California, came out to Ken Stanley Court ready to play and looking for an upset against the Brahmas. The Rustlers had a strong defensive presence that Pierce hadn’t seen this season.

“We haven’t seen a team that digs so many balls like that. I give them a lot of credit,” head coach Nabil Mardini said. “They put pressure on us with their defense, but we put a lot of pressure on them with our serving, and our offense and our setting.”

The match began back and forth with both sides trading small leads to start the first set. Pierce began to pull away slightly midway through the set taking a 19-13 lead, but the Rustlers clawed their way back to within one, 20-19. The Brahmas would hold set point at 24-20 before taking it 25-23.

Pierce seized control of the second set from the start and never let go, winning 25-15.

“In the middle [of the first set] is where you really start to see us sort of fall out of our rhythm,” freshman Cassidy Rosso said. “We got back into it at the end to close that set and then we used that momentum to start off the second set.”

The third and final set began much like the first. The two teams