UKIAH – The Mendocino College women’s volleyball team had their hands full Wednesday night with the visiting Santa Rosa Junior College Bear Cubs.

The Bear Cubs took the Eagles in straight sets, 30-9, 30-11 and 30-11.

“Our passing in serve-receive was probably our most glaring deficiency tonight,” Mendocino Head Coach Ori Polkinghorne said. “It allowed Santa Rosa to go on some scoring runs that put all three games out of reach.”

Mendocino came out in game one firing point for point with the Bear Cubs and even took an early 9-8 lead. However, the lead was short lived as the next two servers for Santa Rosa went on runs of seven and 13 points respectively, to put the game away.

The combination of Santa Rosa’s strong serving and Mendocino’s miscues continued throughout the match.

On a night that saw relatively little offense by the home team, sophomore Middle Hitter Jamie Brown (Potter Valley) pounded four kills for the Eagles. Another bright spot was the defensive effort by sophomore Sara Luetke (Yreka), who paced Mendocino with eight digs.

“We just didn’t play up to our ability tonight, plain and simple. The good news is that we play again Friday night and we have such a hard-working bunch that I know we’ll get back on track,” Polkinghorne said.

The Mendocino College volleyball team travels to Eureka Friday to take on College of the Redwoods, a team they have beaten twice already this season.

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