The Bakersfield College women’s volleyball
team started the season off with a pair of matches
in the Golden West Tournament on Sept. 5.
They split the matches, beating Cuyamuca and
losing to Golden West.

In the match against Cuyamuca, the Renegades
won with the scores of 25-11, 25-14 and
25-12.

The same results could not be produced
against Golden West as they lost in three games
by the scores of 25-22, 25-20 and 29-27. The
team’s three stat leaders for the tournament were
Brookey Holmes with 19 kills, Reisa Fessler also
had 19 kills, and Chelsea Rose with 67 assists.
The team is preparing to rebound from the loss
with the upcoming match at Ventura on Sept. 9.
The team also has a tournament at San Diego
Mesa on Sept. 18-19. The Renegades only home
match in the month of September comes against
Cuesta on Sept. 22.

Head coach Carl Ferreira spoke about the
extended road schedule saying, “I think it’ll be
great. I like being on the road, you truly have
to learn how to manage both (home and road
games).” Ferreira added, “I think experienced
teams can go on the road and be successful and
I know we will do well on the road.” A week before
the Golden West Tournament the volleyball
team had a Red vs. White scrimmage in which
red, the returners, defeated white, the newcomers,
four games to none. The white team got behind
early in each game and was never able to
mount a full comeback.

Nervousness was the issue on the slow start
according to sophomore right side hitter LaPorsha
Singh, 22.

“I think that today being their first game, even
though it was just against each other, we’re still
a little nervous so some of our players got the
jitters and maybe a little timid about playing,”
she said.

Ferreira said “I think they were nervous, you
got red vs. white so that’s a big separation and
they know the returners are pretty good so they
didn’t mentally manage game one very well.”

As for how the team expects to do and what
they want to accomplish, Ferreira said, “I can
tell you confidently we will have an extremely
successful season. I’m extremely confident in
saying that. Last year we lost in the playoffs to
the team that won the state championship and
we’ve done that two of the last three years. We
have been very competitive in our region the
past four years now.”

From the players perspective they want to
take it one game at a time, but still have their
sights on a playoff return.