In a meeting of the WSC North's two unbeatens, the Moorpark College women's volleyball team fell in four sets Wednesday night at Santa Barbara City College.

The loss snapped the Raiders' 16-match WSC North winning streak that dated back to a three-set loss to Santa Barbara in Nov. 12, 2010

"There were two Moorpark teams playing," Moorpark coach Steve Burkhart said.

"The team in the first game is the team we think we have. The next three games was the team I hope we don't see again."

Moorpark (9-7, 3-1) won its 49th straight set in WSC North play when it took the opener, 25-20, but first-place Santa Barbara (11-6, 5-0) responded 25-15, 25-21, 25-14.

"It wasn't a case where they did a lot," Burkhart said. "We just didn't execute on offense the way we needed to."

Gabby Luciani had seven kills and 13 digs. Amber Glaab had six kills and 18 digs. Taylor Susim had 10 blocks.

The loss was Moorpark's second straight, which followed a three-match winning streak.

"We've been on a pretty major rollercoaster all year," Burkhart said. "We've been consistently inconsistent. We've been working really hard to be just a little more consistent.

"We're still in the race. Hopefully, we'll get a little better."

Moorpark hosts cross-county rival Ventura (3-12, 2-2) tonight at Raider Pavilion. The Pirates are riding on a two-match WSC North winning streak, having come from 2-0 down to catch visiting Cuesta in five sets Friday behind Laura Acosta's 14 kills.

Wednesday's 3-0 sweep of Los Angeles Mission pushed the Moorpark College women's volleyball team winning streak to 11 matches and 31 games dating back to Sept. 21.

Behind sophomore middle blocker Karissa Flack, who leads the WSC in kills (293), solo blocks (57) and hitting percentage (.440), Moorpark has swept nine straight matches, 3-0, including last week's visit to Santa Barbara, which split the WSC North title with the Raiders the past two seasons.

Despite not dropping a game for two weeks, the Moorpark College women's volleyball team (10-3) slipped one spot to No. 7 in Southern California when the most recent coaches' poll was released Monday.

Moorpark also dropped to No. 9 in the state poll. Mt. San Antonio (11-2) leapt over the Raiders despite a loss to No. 4 Pasadena City.

The three-time defending WSC North champion opened divisional play by sweeping rival Ventura and newcomers Los Angeles Mission. The Raiders have won 13 straight games in their five-match winning streak.

With the defense staking Moorpark to a 39-0 halftime lead, star receiver Chris Gant wasn't needed to lead the Raiders offensively Saturday.

As a result, Gant, who caught five passes for 80 yards, saw his touchdown streak halted at 13 straight games.

The sophomore from Alemany hadn't been kept out of the end zone since he caught one pass for 12 yards in his collegiate debut, a 37-20 loss to Pierce Sept. 5, 2009.

He caught 26 touchdown passes in the 13-game stretch. His 44 catches for 634 yards and 10 scores still leads Southern California in all three categories.

Through five games, he remains the only player in the state to scored double-digit touchdowns.

The plane touched down Saturday night and Ian Shultis' phone lit up like a scoreboard.

It confirmed what he already knew, that his brother would take care of the Moorpark College football team's school-record 13-game losing streak.

"I knew it was going to happen," said Shultis. "With that offense, I knew Zach was going to get it done. No one knows just how hard Moorpark is working right now."

Shultis, who set several school passing records during Moorpark's 0-10 season a year ago, transferred to the University of Massachusetts in August. He was there, in uniform before friends and family, as the FCS-powerhouse Minutemen nearly knocked off Michigan at the "Big House" Saturday.

A memorable Saturday was capped off hours later by the news that the Raiders were finally quarterbacked to victory by a Shultis.

"I wouldn't have it any other way," said Shultis. "It really does make me look back on last year and make me feel a lot better about it."

Down 19-18 with 3:29 to play, Zach Shultis drove Moorpark 58 yards in 10 plays, then kicked the game-winning 21-yard field goal with three seconds to spare. In his second college start, the Thousand Oaks High product completed 28-of-41 passing for 216 yards and three touchdowns.

"Zach's always been that second guy you could always fall back on and he's never really been needed," said Shultis. "It finally came to him and he delivered. I'm so proud of him. I knew he could do it."

There can't be a more agonizing way to lose an unlucky 13th straight football game.

Having battled back from 31-14 and 38-21 down in the third quarter, the Moorpark College football team was on the cusp of winning its first game in nearly two years Saturday night, until its potential game-winning, 17-yard field goal sailed inches wide as time expired.

And that wasn't the toughest part of the 38-36 loss.

Two plays before the fateful boot, Raiders running back Matt Gentle scored a touchdown on second-and-goal that was marked short of the goal line by officials.

"I saw the hole and dove up in there," said Gentle. "I guess the whole pileup confused the refs a little bit, but I was in there."

Sleep has been replaced this week by an endless loop as the sophomore replays the series of downs over and over in his head.

"I feel like the missed field goal was my fault," said Gentle. "I should have got in without a doubt."

Moorpark head coach Jim Bittner refused to criticize officials, but confirmed that the game film revealed Gentle clearly got into the end zone.

"There were a lot of things that happened in the game that shouldn't have," said Bittner. "It was truly a good game. We really deserved to win the game, but we didn't. That's one of the lessons you learn in sports."

Yet the Raiders feel the result isn't a loss, but a team that's come together.

"The chemistry is way different than last year," said receiver Chris Gant. "We don't have little groups. We're starting to come together as a family."

"The biggest thing to come out of this is they really jelled as a team," added Bittner. "They played well, especially the second half of the game."