Volleyball finds early success

Men's volleyball opened their season with success by winning the Palomar tournament on Jan. 22 and followed with two wins in the Long Beach City College tournament. Their sole loss in pool play came to the tournament hosts, Long Beach, in a close match that went to three sets.

Pool one of the tournament featured Golden West, Los Angeles Pierce, Long Beach and San Diego City, but it was clear that GWC and LBCC were the powers of the pool. Golden West and Long Beach walked through the other two teams, with none of the four matches reaching a third set.

The only match to reach a third set was when the Rustlers faced off with the Vikings. Despite dropping the first set by a score of 18-25, the Rustlers battled back to win the second set 25-22. In a third and final set the Vikings came out victorious by a score of 15-11.

Despite the loss, Golden West head coach Tim Johnson believes that his team could be among the top teams in the state. "There's a lot of good teams out there and this is one of the better teams I've coached here at Golden West. This is my 7th or 8th season and I had a team that went to the state finals and another team that went 17-1 and these guys are as good as that team, if not better."

Johnson hopes to see improvement from his team as they prepare for a rematch against Long Beach in their home gym on Feb. 9.

"That's a real physical team over there at Long Beach. They block real well. I think we're a little scrappier on defense. I think we need to side out a little more consistently. I think, not just serving tougher, but making the right serves at the right time. I think we need to be a little more aggressive as well against those guys. It's gonna take a real good night for us to beat that team right now."

The Rustlers will have consecutive matches at home when the face Long Beach on Feb. 9 and El Camino College on Feb. 11.