Owls Drop Heartbreaker to No. 6 Renegades

Citrus College came out fired up against the No. 6-ranked team in the CCCWVCA State Top-25, Bakersfield College, but couldn't hold off the Renegades' comeback efforts and dropped a 3-2 loss (23-25, 12-25, 25-20, 26-24, 15-12).

The Owls drop to 6-7 overall 1-1 in the Western State Conference-South, while the Renegades improve to 8-1, 3-0 with their fifth-straight win.

Delaney Tate continued her dominant performance with 30 kills, the third-most by an Owl since 2005, along with five aces. Faith Evaro had 14 kills, while Maritza Sanchez dished out 48 assists.

Defensively, Tate had 25 digs, while Destiny Guzman and Kalin Greene each had two blocks.

Citrus battled back to take the lead late in the first set. Guzman sparked a 5-0 run to even things up. Evelyn Enriquez had back-to-back aces before an error from the Renegades and a kill from Greene made it 14-14.

Bakersfield scored the next point, but a kill from Greene and another from Evaro put the Owls in front.

The Renegades battled back to tie the set at 19-19 before Citrus called a timeout. Tate grabbed a kill out of the timeout, followed by back-to-back aces from Greene, put the Owls in front 22-19 and force Bakersfield's second timeout. A kill from Evaro ended the set in favor of the Owls, 25-23.

The Owls were firing in the second set and posted their best hitting percentage of the night with a .231 clip (12 kills with three errors on 39 attempts). Defensively, Citrus held Bakersfield to its lowest percentage of the night at a .028 clip with just six kills and five errors on 36 attempts.

Citrus jumped out to a 5-2 lead, before Bakersfield evened the score at 7-7. Something clicked for the Owls as they took off on a 6-1 run to force a Renegade timeout. Evaro got the scoring spree going, smacking down an over pass. Greene grabbed one of her four aces of the night to put the home team in front 13-8.

The Owls took off on another big run, scoring five unanswered points to put some distance between them and the Renegades, 21-11.

Bakersfield scored a quick point, but three kills from three different Owls and an ace from Enriquez sealed the second-set win.

Despite trailing 2-0 in the match, Bakersfield battled back and won the next two sets to force a fifth and deciding set.

Down 7-2, Citrus kept chipping away and took the lead on a Sanchez kill, 10-9.

Both teams battled for control, but Bakersfield won the set 15-12 to take the match, 3-2.

The Owls are back in action Friday, hosting Santa Monica College for a match at 6:00 p.m.