Volleyball team still upbeat during up and down season

Youth will be served and a group of fiery freshman promise to serve and spike the Southwestern College volleyball team to a long-awaited league title.

“We go hard or go home come game time,” said freshman setter Alejandra Puga. “It’s thanks to Coach (Angela) Rock for all of her patience in us to get better.”

Rock has had to summon patience after a pair of home losses against Saddleback and Rio Hondo that left the ladies with a 1-2 record to start the season. Football coaches preach that defense wins championships and Rock agrees.

“We are spending a lot of time working on our team defense and improving our serving toughness,” she said. “We have developed new players in different positions to try and use every bit of talent in every conceivable scenario.”

SWC’s defense led to consecutive wins against Santa Ana and Cerro Cosa, but sputtered during losses to Chaffey and Orange Coast. The Lady Jags won against Grossmont, but lost on the road to Imperial Valley on the road, bringing their season record to 4-7, and their conference record to 1-3.

Lady Jaguars players are not bashful about sharing their aspirations.

“We want to win conference and be the top dogs,” said freshman Erryn Smith.

Rock is on the same mission.

“We have scouted four of the six teams in our conference and are preparing for each of them with our best matchups,” she said. “The women are working hard in both the weight room and in the gym to give us the best opportunity to have a successful season.”

The Lady Jags have only eight games in the season left. Rock said she feels their next two matches are good opportunities to get back into the win column.

“Our focus has been defense and serving,” she said. “We feel we are making much needed improvements in our serve receive and reducing our hitting errors which should produce more wins for us.”
The Lady Jags play San Diego City College on the road on October 17 and San Diego Mesa College at home on October 19.

“We have our Dig Pink match on October 19 against Mesa College and we will be having a raffle to earn money to raise awareness for breast cancer research,” said Rock. “We want everyone to come out and wear their pink for our match.”