Box Score Colton Yack, Sports Information Director

Volleyball:

No. 6 SLCC closes season with sweep, head into Region 18 Tournament as No. 2 seed
 

	1	2	3	4	5	Final
SLCC	25	25	25	X	X	3
USU-E	14	18	13	X	X	0

 
SALT LAKE CITY – In a rather emotional day for the No. 6 SLCC volleyball team, the Bruins saw six sophomores play their final home match inside the Bruin Arena and closed out their home career in the right way, a 3-0 sweep over the Eagles of Utah State University-Eastern

Those six sophomores were Carol Grasso (Sao Paulo, Brazil), Mariana Pilon (Sao Paulo, Brazil), Ailin Donati (Rome, Italy), Sequoia Lofton (Spokane, WA), Cassandra Fenton (Helendale, CA), and Allyssa Koki (Ewa Beach, HI). All of whom have made an impact, both on and off the floor, during their time at Salt Lake Community College.

In the previous matchup against USU-E on the road in Price, Utah, SLCC was nearly stunned as they fell behind 0-2 but managed to fight back and win the remaining three sets to seal the win. This time at home, the Bruins never let it get even close to a similar situation.

Set one saw the two trade points until the Bruins started to find a groove. Leading 7-6, SLCC scored 15 of the match's next 19 points to blow open a commanding lead and a 25-14 set win.

The Eagles seemingly had no chance entering set two as the Bruins rolled with their set one momentum and quickly opened a 12-3 lead. Giving themselves a glimmer of hope for a comeback USU-E combatted with a mine three point run to close the gap to six. SLCC eliminated that glimmer however by responding with multiple runs and cruised to the 2-0 lead with the 25-18 lead.

Set three saw the Eagles enjoy their largest lead of the match at three with a score of 2-5. Maybe SLCC felt the need to tease USU-E as they rolled to a 10-2 run to open up a five point lead and never looked back with a dominating set win 25-13 to close out the sweep.

In almost scripted fashion two sophomores were named most valuable player of the match as Grasso turned in 19 kills hitting .441 while adding eight digs as Lofton hit .583 while hammering nine kills.

Fellow sophomore Pilon totaled 13 digs on the defensive end. The freshmen trio of Jessica Quayle (Ogden, UT), Kallie Schmit (Kalama, WA), and Brighton Taylor (Bountiful, UT) closed out the dominant offensive performance with eight, seven, and six kills apiece, respectively.

The sweep was exactly what SLCC needed as it seems they are hitting their stride heading into next week's Region 18 Tournament hosted by the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls, Idaho. The Bruins will enter the tournament as the No. 2 seed and will play the winner of No. 3 seed Snow College and No. 6 seed Colorado Northwestern Community College Friday, Nov. 7, at 4 p.m.

Following the win the Bruins end the regular season with a 20-8 overall record, 8-2 in the Scenic West Athletic Conference. Of those eight season losses, seven have come against teams currently ranked in the top-10 in the NJCAA National Poll. Perhaps the grueling season schedule could pay dividends now that SLCC enters postseason play.