City College men’s volleyball halted its two game slide as it beat the Moorpark Raiders, 3-1, Wednesday night at the Sports Pavilion to improve to 6-4.

The Vaqueros took the match with set scores of 25-23, 21-25, 25-18, and 25-21.

“It was a little shaky,” said freshman opposite hitter Jackson Wopat. “But it felt good to get that win.”

Sophomore outside hitter Taylor McCluskey led the Vaqueros offensively as he registered a double-double with 22 kills and 10 digs. Sophomore middle blocker Robert Gulvin was the other Vaquero with double digit kills as he added 10 of his own.

After trailing early in the set, the Vaqueros clawed their way back to tie the game at 22. Behind the serving of Gulvin, City College closed out the first set 25-23 on a kill from McCluskey.

“We were having ups and downs with our energy levels,” Wopat said. “Which is something we’re working on controlling for the future.”

City College started the second set strong, but failed to keep up the intensity after losing the lead at 10-9. From there the Raiders remained resilient and fought off the Vaqueros, closing out the set 25-21.

“It took us a set to get into a groove with the new lineup,” said head coach Matt Jones. “Even though we’ve been practicing it for a couple of days.”

Moorpark stayed neck and neck with the Vaqueros through the third set, matching them point for point. However, that all changed when the Vaqueros hit their groove and closed out the set with a 12-5 run.

“When we get it going, we’re on fire,” Wopat said.

The Vaqueros dominated the fourth set as they started with a 4-0 lead and never looked back. The Raiders were able to carve the lead down to three points on a few occasions, but were incapable of kicking the Vaqueros off their roll and saw themselves drop the final set 25-21.

“Our defensive effort was much better tonight,” Jones said. “We’re going to have to find a rhythm on offense with this lineup.”

City College was led defensively by Wopat and Gulvin who each had five blocks. Kyle Smiley also had four blocks in addition to his 43 assists and six digs.

“We weren’t executing at the level we need to,” Jones said. “But at least we got a conference win.”

The Vaqueros saw a familiar face Wednesday night in Owen Yoshimoto. The ex-Vaquero turned-Raider brought down the hammer amassing 16 kills through the match in his return to the Sports Pavilion.

City College men’s volleyball will continue its season against Los Angeles Trade Tech at 6 p.m. on Friday, March 11 at the Sports Pavilion.