Women’s volleyball falls short in first conference game

Kyle Ingram

October 30, 2016

Palomar volleyball player Kianna Niu bumps a ball with both forearms. She wears a pink jersey and black shorts.

Palomar Kianna Niu (5) saves the ball and resets the play against San Bernardino as the comets defeat San Bernardino in three straight 25-1, 25-21 and 25-21, Oct. 26, 2016 at the Dome. (Johnny Jones/The Telescope)

Head Women's Volleyball Coach Karl Seiler confers with the team during the game as the Palomar College Comets faced off against Mt. San Jacinto in the Dome on October 14, 2016. Joe Dusel / The Telescope. — Head Women’s Volleyball Coach Karl Seiler confers with the team during the game as the Palomar College Comets faced off against Mt. San Jacinto in the Dome on October 14, 2016. Joe Dusel / The Telescope.

The Comets faced their rivals in Palomar’s first women’s volleyball home conference match-up against the MiraCosta Spartans.

MiraCosta took the first two sets 25-22 and 25-15, Palomar then took the third set 25-15, and MiraCosta took the fourth and final set 25-18 to finish the match atop the Comets 3-1.

Palomar capitalized on offense making a lot of good plays against the MiraCosta defense, but the Spartans offense was too much for the Comets to handle on the other side of the net resulting in a tough Palomar loss.

Freshman right side hitter/middle blocker Sammy Campos, is a Mission Hills high school alumni. Campos was a key player on offense in the Oct. 21 match-up finishing with six kills and a kill percentage of .176 while contributing with 17 total attacks.

“I feel like I did well, I feel like it was one of my best games, I hit one of the quickest balls that I ever hit. I felt pretty good about that game,” said Campos.

Palomar Kianna Niu (5) saves the ball and resets the play against San Bernardino as the comets defeat San Bernardino in three straight 25-1, 25-21 and 25-21, Oct. 26 at the Dome. Johnny Jones/The Telescope

Campos loves playing at Palomar saying all of her teammates are like her second family, and that she thought her teammates were only there to play and not socialize, but everyone on the team loves being with together and they all have each other’s back.

The Comets head coach of the women’s volleyball team, Karl Sieler, is a five-time Pacific Coast Athletic Conference coach of the year. Sieler has also led the Comets to the Southern California Regional championship match five times winning the PCAC title all five of those times.

“Overall I thought we did pretty well, that was one of the top teams in the state and their playing pretty well,” said Sieler. “So for us to come out and play and compete with them, I thought we played really well.”

The biggest key player of the game was #5 outside hitter Kianna Niu who contributed with the most total attacks between both Palomar and MiraCosta with 34 and the second most points in the entire game on both sides of the net with 9.0.

Palomar Outside Hitter Kianna Niu (5) spikes the ball for a point at the Dome on Oct. 21. Palomar lost 3-1 to MiraCosta. Bruce Woodward/The Telescope

Kianna Niu is a Valley View high school alumni in Hemet, Calif. and has began her sophomore year at Palomar this semester.

The Comets finished the game with 42 points while giving up 62 points to the MiraCosta Spartans putting the Comets 5-12 overall and 2-2 in conference play.

Palomar finished the game as a team with 48 digs, 35 kills, and 126 total attacks.

Come see the Comets play their final home conference match-up against the College of the Desert at 5 p.m. on Friday Nov. 4 at The Dome at Palomar College.

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