The San Bernardino Valley College women's volleyball team rallied back from some opening set nerves Friday to force a deciding fifth set in the team's 2025 season opener against MiraCosta College.

But the Wolverines couldn't complete the comeback, falling to the Spartans 25-11, 25-23, 20-25, 22-25, 15-12.

Coming off back-to-back conference championships, the Wolverines feature only two sophomores on the 2025 squad. And the new freshmen struggled out of the gate, falling behind 13-4 early in the first set.

SBVC shook off the first game and started the second one strong, leading 8-5 early. But the Spartans rallied to tie it at 8, and the two teams traded points until MiraCosta took the set to game point at 24-20. The Wolverines fended off three game points, before falling.

The Wolverines took the third game 25-20, then started the fourth with six straight points from with setter Venus Bush at the service line. The Spartans wouldn't go down that easily, rallying back before SBVC closed the set out 25-22.

In the deciding set the Wolverines took an 6-3 lead early, but they could not stop a four-point run from MiraCosta to take the lead. The teams went back-and-forth, but mistakes down the stretch led to SBVC's undoing.

Devi'arre Lucas led the SBVC attack with 22 kills, while Tamia Hardwick added 12 more. Bush accounted for 32 of SBVC's 45 assists in the game, while libero Ava Avila led the team with 19 digs. But it was at the service line the Wolverines struggled the most, committing 19 service errors and 12 serve-receive errors in the loss.

SBVC plays twice more at home this coming week, hosting Southwestern at 5 p.m. Wednesday and Santiago Canyon at 5 p.m. Friday.