No. 15 Canyons Sweeps No. 2 Pasadena to Advance in CCCAA Regional Bracket

The win by Canyons (15-10, 10-2) was the ninth in a row and snapped the Lancers' 20-match win streak.

No. 15 seed College of the Canyons upset No. 2 Pasadena City College 3-0 (25-20, 25-16, 25-22) on Tuesday to advance to the second round of the CCCCAA Southern California Regional Playoffs. The win was the ninth straight for the Cougars and snapped PCC's 20-match streak. —Jesse Muñoz/COC Sports Information
No. 15 seed College of the Canyons upset No. 2 Pasadena City College 3-0 (25-20, 25-16, 25-22) on Tuesday to advance to the second round of the CCCCAA Southern California Regional Playoffs. The win was the ninth straight for the Cougars and snapped PCC's 20-match streak. —Jesse Muñoz/COC Sports Information

Team Stats

November 24, 2021

Story and photo by Jesse Muñoz/COC Sports Information Director 

PASADENA — No. 15 seed College of the Canyons stunned No. 2 Pasadena City College with a straight sets road victory to upset the Lancers and advance to the next round of the CCCAA Southern California Regional Playoffs. Set scores were 25-20, 25-16, 25-22. 

COC sophomore Caitlin Liebe continued her recent surge with eight kills to tie with teammate Jacqueline Ibarra for the team lead. Liebe hit .429 on the night and added two assisted blocks. She has recorded eight or more kills in five of the last six matches.

Sophomore Damani Harvey added five more kills and four assisted blocks, while Indiah Lewis helped set the tone from her middle blocker position with four kills and five block assists.

Canyons also recorded eight aces in the match led by three from Sabrina Sveiven and a pair from Rhiannon Boddy.

Boddy led the Cougars with six digs with Ariana Vargas following with four.

COC finished the match with 18 combined blocks compared to four by the Lancers.

Pasadena racked up 26 attack errors and hit just .148 for the match. Despite that, PCC finished the match with 42 kills, primarily coming from Camila Sanchez-Tellez (15) and Nalani Young (10). The Lancers had just three aces in the match.

Canyons (15-10, 10-2) will now move on to face No. 10 seed Ventura College (18-6, 8-2) in a second-round regional playoff match at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 27. Game time has not yet been finalized. 

The win over Pasadena (23-2, 18-0) snapped the Lancers' 20-game win streak. The home loss by PCC, the South Coast Conference champions, was its first of the season. Pasadena has not lost in straight sets since the 2019 season.

The Cougars have won nine straight matches dating back to Oct. 27. 

Tuesday's playoff victory was the first for Canyons since 2017. That season, COC advanced all the way to the CCCAA State Championship tournament for the third time in program history.

A win over Ventura on Saturday would send the Cougars back to the state championship tourney being held in Fresno Dec. 3-5. 

COC is 1-1 vs. Ventura this season having defeated the No. 16 state ranked Pirates 3-2 (25-17, 20-25, 16-25, 26-24, 15-12) in the regular season finale back on Nov. 16. 

Canyons, which began the season with a 2-8 record, also lost on the road at Ventura in straight sets (25-17, 25-17, 25-21) on Sept. 17. That loss came in the midst of a five-game skid by the Cougars.

Ventura defeated No. 7 Irvine Valley College (16-6, 12-4) on Tuesday to advance to Saturday's second round matchup.

A full CCCAA Southern California Regional Playoff bracket is available here. 

Stay up to date on all this season's action by following the College of the Canyons Athletic department on social media at @COCathletics on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.