The Cerritos College volleyball team was defeated in the finals of the Cypress Invitational Saturday at Cypress College by the host Chargers, 30-27 in a close and well-played match.

Falcons’ right setter Pearl Arvizu said, “If we played our game from the beginning, we would have beaten them easily, because they weren’t that intense.

“But it was a good game. We did our best.”

The Falcons won seven of their eight games in pool play, opening with a split with Cypress, winning the first game, 30-27 and dropping the second, 31-29.

Cerritos then swept Cerro Coso (30-18, 30-16), Allan Hancock (30-14, 30-12) and Citrus (30-24, 30-24) to make the playoff round.

After receiving a first round bye, the Falcons defeated Pierce College in the semifinal, 30-25.

The Falcons trailed Cypress, 26-17 when they rallied to cut the deficit to two, 28-26.

The Chargers went ahead, 29-26 when a Cerritos player was called for touching the net.

Cerritos scored on a block by Tiffany Amete to again pull within two, 29-27, but that was all the Falcons would get.

Vanessa Cid, Falcons’ middle blocker, said “We waited too long to get back at them.

“We should have started playing (more) intense from the beginning of the game.”

Schedule Changes

The Cerritos College volleyball matches scheduled for Wednesday at Cypress and Friday at Pierce were cancelled to make room for South Coast Conference games against L.A. Harbor.

The matches against the Seahawks will take place Oct. 12 at Cerritos and Nov. 7 at Harbor.