The 2008 Long Beach City College women’s volleyball season came to a close following the Vikings’ 3-0 loss at Palomar College in Round 1 of the Southern California Regional Playoffs.  The loss ends an exciting season that saw scores of fans packing the LBCC little gym, and the conference’s best player in a Vikings jersey.

LBCC, seeded No. 14 for the playoffs and ranked No. 22 in the state, lost the match by scores of 16-25, 19-25, and 12-25 to end the season with a 15-9 overall record.  The Comets, ranked fourth in the state and seeded fourth, roared to a 10-4 lead in Game 1, saw the advantage cut to 16-14, then finished on an 11-2 run.

In Game 2, Long Beach led 9-5. But Palomar went on a 6-0 run after a Comets’ timeout to take control of the match. Long Beach made a brief run to cut a 22-14 deficit to 22-18, but a Palomar kill and two Long Beach hitting errors sealed the deal.

Game 3 was all Palomar, as the Comets grabbed a 6-1 lead and cruised home.

“Palomar is a good team. They are big and aggressive,” said LBCC head coach Suzie Witmer. “We just didn’t show up. I thought we played great defensively, we just didn’t have any offense.”  In their final matches as Vikings, sophomore Lacy Baker led LBCC with eight kills and sophomore Maricris Lapaix added six kills.

“It was a positive season for us,” Witmer said. “Our conference was really tough this year. To finish third in the SCC and still make the playoffs really says something about the competition we faced every time we hit the floor for a conference match.”

Lapaix, Baker earn first-team All-SCC honors

Sophomore outside hitters Maricris Lapaix  and Lacy Baker were both named first-team All-South Coast Conference at last week’s postseason coaches meeting.

Lapaix led the SCC with 339 kills and a 3.46 kills per game average. Baker wasn’t far behind, ranking second with 316 kills and third with 3.16 KPG.

Freshman setter Cashmere Santos and sophomore libero Grace Chang also earned second-team All-SCC honors.