Brooks, Hawks continue to attack

By Ramon Scott
Updated: March 21, 2021

BRIANNA BROOKS

2021 SAN DIEGO CHRISTIAN HAWKS VOLLEYBALL

ECS staff report

EL CAJON – As the old saying goes, “fool me once, shame on you. fool me twice…”

In the case of the San Diego Christian College women’s volleyball team, the Hawks proved they are “a force to reckoned with” following a second, 2-match sweep of nationally-ranked Vanguard University over the weekend.

At home on Friday (Mar. 19), SDCC swept the Lions, 25-19,25-18,25-17. Then in Costa Mesa on Saturday (Mar. 20), the match lasted more than two hours and needed a tie-breaker before the Hawks prevailed, with a 19-25,25-17,22-25,25-21,15-8, come-from-behind decision.

“The verdicts were even more impressive since San Diego Christian had not played in three weeks due to COVID-19 concerns. They last played Mar. 3 when completing their first sweep of Vanguard.

In the revised schedule because of the pandemic, a fifth straight meeting between the schools is slated for Thursday at The Pit in Orange County.

According to the SDCC press release on Friday’s match:

The first set was a wire-to-wire victory for the upstart Hawks. Senior setter, Ariana Velasquez began her outstanding evening by serving up three quick points for SDCC and they would never look back winning 25-19. Ariana played a major role in setting up the Hawks offense all evening providing 20 assists, 2 kills, 4 digs, and 4 aces over the course of the match.

Set two began with 2 kills by Alexis DeBina-Bautista and an ace by Velasquez to put the Hawks up early. The Lions would battle back to knot the score at 4-4, but back-to-back kills by Aixa Crespo would put SDCC in front for the remainder of the set. The Hawks would continue to pull away taking the second 25-18 and earning a 2-0 advantage.

The third and what would be the final, was the most competitive set of the evening, for the first half of it at least. The two teams would battle back-and-forth to a 9-9 score early. The Hawks would take control immediately after when Crespo smashed a kill and the game’s leading scorer, Breanna Brooks backed her up with 2 straight kills of her own.

Brooks would lead the Hawks’ attack knocking down 13 kills and in addition to her impressive offensive performance, would add 5 digs and 4 block assists in San Diego Christian’s dominant victory.

The game would be finalized just as the match began, with Velasquez serving three-straight points.

BROOKS HONORED: Brooks was named GSAC’s Attacker of the Week for last week’s efforts. It was the second time she earned the conference the honor.

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