Fullerton crushed San Diego Mesa, as they swept the Olympians winning 3-0 for the Wednesday night matchup.
Going into the match against San Diego Mesa, the Hornets had a three-game winning streak. They defeated Grossmont, Antelope Valley, and most recently San Diego Miramar in a close match winning 3 sets and losing two.
The San Diego Mesa’s Men’s Volleyball team has lost every match of the season (0-9) and have not won a single set.
With both teams headed in opposite directions, the Hornets kept their winning streak alive. While the Olympians kept adding to their losing streak by ending the game with the set points against the Hornets of 25-21, 25-18, and 25-12.
The first set was closely contested, as San Diego Mesa started with 2 points over FC. The set was then tied 3-3 until there was a kill by freshman middle back Farooq Gibani. From then on, the Hornets had the lead for most of the set.
San Diego Mesa’s sophomore middle back player Tanner McMullen brought back momentum for the Olympians by making the end of the set closer.
Hornet sophomore outside hitter Garrett Geiger brought the game back into the Hornets favor with a defining kill, making the score 23-21.
Fullerton won the first set 25-21 as the Olympians passed a free ball over the net that went out of bounds.
The second set started out close with the points going back and forth. Geiger brought the team out of a tie with an ace making the score 4-3 Hornets.
A few plays later, powerhouse outside hitter Asontae Lewis-Owens tricked the Olympians by initially setting up for a big hit and then rolling the ball right over the block making the score 8-5 Hornets.
After going back and forth with points, Fullerton’s opposite hitter, Clell Wade, made a great save to assist Geiger’s kill to bring the momentum back for the Hornets as the score became 18-15 in favor of the Hornets.
San Diego Mesa’s player Kean Deluna ran into the referee table while trying to get a second touch on Geiger’s kill and Hornet’s prevailed on the point going up 20-16. Hornets won the second set 25-18.
The third and final set’s first kill was by San Diego Mesa’s middle back Taner McMullen. The Olympians started out leading 4-1. The Hornet’s competed hard and were tied multiple times with the Olympians.
Momentum came back for the Hornets with an ace by Fullerton’s Jonathan Medina. Hornet Miguel Cortez switched things up and tipped the ball over the net making the score 9-5 with Fullerton in the lead.
Overall, the Hornets dominated the Olympians all night, and the kill from libero/outside hitter Nathaniel Melgar winning the last set was an example of it ending with the score of 25-12.
“We have a lot of things to work on, we’re still figuring things out especially setting-wise. Overall, I thought we finished pretty well, spreading offense out which makes it a little bit harder on defense when you spread it out instead of being a one-dimensional team,”said FC head coach James Anderson.
When asked how he thought he performed sophomore Garrett Geiger said, “I could’ve done better, I mean as a team I think we did well.”
Lastly, freshman outside hitter Asontae Lewis-Owens added, “We played great. We just need to pick up some passing and we’ll be good as long as we keep swinging on the deep angles we’re good.”
The Hornets will carry their four-game winning streak on the road against Palomar for Friday, Mar. 1 at 6 pm. They’ll be going into the game with their current season record of 4-5.
