The early morning sun cast a soft golden glow atop the gym on Friday Aug. 5, as Mt. SAC’s Women’s Volleyball team hit the court with nothing but energy and a determination to win as they prepared for two home games.

SAC first played against the Grossmont Griffins who were looking to bounce back from their 3-0 loss to the Feather River Eagles, while SAC was looking to continue their winning streak from their last victory against the Irvine Valley Lasers.

“Our game plan was to keep things simple and the key word was hunger, said head coach Samantha Neely. “Our team was a really hungry team and we wanted to come out with the body language, the attitude, the behaviors of a hungry team and just show that we wanted it.”

The first set was the tone setter for the rest of the match. With SAC scoring 12 points before the Griffins could score six. The early bird gets the worm, and at this 10 a.m. game SAC’s energy showed exactly that.

“A lot of the days, a lot of our games, our energy is great,” said sophomore libero Mayah Tiscareno (20), “but I feel like today, since we are playing such a crazy opponent, our energy was forced to kind of raise because we feed off of our energy.”

SAC ended up taking the first set 25-17 and went into the next set feeling great, not knowing they may have awoken the Griffins from their sleep.

On set two, the Griffins came with a bit more fight in them, scoring seven points while SAC slowly put up three points. For a second it looked like the Griffins were getting tired of losing, beating SAC 25-23. SAC fought to close the gap and tried to make a comeback, but the Griffins refused to give them re-entry into the winners-circle for set two.

Set three was similar to set two but with one major plot twist: SAC was be the victors this time 25-22. With another back and forth battle, the Griffins came to show SAC that they were not the little sisters around here, there was only one problem.

SAC refused to back down.

Set four was do or die and SAC knew what was on the line. Tiscareno (20) was holding it down with 17 digs for the whole game. She was a defensive anchor and one of the veins that helped pump confidence into the heart of the SAC volleyball team.

“I have to play with that confidence,” said Tiscareno (20), “because at the end of the day I’m the libero and I have to show that confidence on the court or else they’re going to target me.”

SAC took a commanding 25-14 win in the final set, giving them the win for the entire match 3-1.

“We put our foot on the gas pedal in that fourth set and said, hey, we need to capitalize on our lead early in the set and take advantage of our lead,” said coach Neely. “Playing with a lead is a privilege, but we have to earn the right to have that privilege and I think they really took care of business.”

SAC’s next test that day would be against the Moorpark Raiders. They beat the Raiders in the same 3-1 fashion that they did against the Griffins.

With SAC now riding a three-game winning streak, they look to carry that winning energy into their match Aug. 10 against the Orange Coast Pirates.

“We’re going to show hunger and competitiveness,” said Tiscareno (16),” we’re going to go out with the same exact energy, if not more.”