Men’s Volleyball Sweeps Past Santa Barbara

TORRANCE, Calif. – El Camino College mounted an incredible comeback in the opening set and rode the momentum to a 3-0 (28-26, 25-21, 25-17) victory over Santa Barbara Wednesday night at the ECC South Gym.

The Warriors (13-2, 8-1) fought off five set points in the opening frame and would outscore the Vaqueros (10-6, 6-4) 9-2 to close out the first and steal the opening frame.

With the score 24-19, Cruz Padilla began the comeback with a kill off an assist from Joseph Sico. An attacking error from Austin Lind made the score 24-21 and then a kill from Connor Payne cut the deficit to two and prompted a timeout from Santa Barbara.

But the break was no help as three straight attacking errors from the Vaqueros gave the Warriors a 25-24 lead and their first set point of the match.

The teams would alternate points until another attacking error, this time from Calvin Sanborn, gave the Warriors the opening set.

The Vaqueros committed five of their nine attacking errors in the set during that stretch and also committed a service error.

The Warriors would ride that momentum to a wire-to-wire victory with only three ties in the second set and then a late surge in the third locked up the sweep.

Gabriel Vargas-Featherstone led the Warriors with 15 kills on 24 swings with two errors (.542) to go along with four blocks while Angel Felix added five kills and a team-high six blocks.

As a team, the Warriors collected 19 blocks (three solo). Sico dished out 33 assists and set the team to a collective .325 attacking percentage. He also recorded seven digs.

The Warriors will return to action Friday night on the road at Moorpark.