Reedley College moved into a tie for fifth place in the Central Valley Conference women's volleyball race with a 3-1 victory over the Cerro Coso Community College Coyotes on Wednesday night in Reedley.
The 25-21, 25-23, 19-25, 25-13 win improved the Lady Tigers to 4-4 in the CVC and 7-9 overall going into a 5 pm Friday match at Columbia College in Sonora. Columbia improved to 3-5 in the CVC with a win over West Hills Coalinga in another Wednesday match. Cerro Coso fell to 4-4 and 7-12 as the first of two rounds in the nine-team conference came to a close.
The first two sets of the Cerro Coso contest may have been too close for comfort for longtime Tiger head coach Shannon Jefferies. Both sets were tied on 10 different occasions before the Tigers took control at the end. Rosa Mendoza (Orange Cove) had one ace as the freshman served the last five points of the first set as Reedley battled back from a three-point deficit.
In the second set, Madison Gardner (Kingsburg) served for eight points as Reedley turned a 17-14 deficit into a 22-17 lead.
The third set was tied on five occasions before the Coyotes from Ridge Crest took control.
But another long string of Tiger points ended the best-of-five match in the fourth set. This time the hero was freshman Houa Xiang, who served for 15 straight points as Reedley erased an 11-9 deficit. The Tigers had a hitting percentage of .414 in the fourth set, one of their best of the season.
Freshman Beatriz Jimenez (Dinuba) led the Tigers with 15 kills while Gardner had 13. Freshman Madison Monis (Fowler) followed with 11 kills. Freshman setter Katelyn Velazquez (Reedley) had 37 assists while freshman libero Lupita Sierra (Dinuba) had 12 digs. Xiong finished with four service aces.