The air was tense and most of the crowd grew quiet as Moorpark prepared to serve. The EC men’s volleyball team was leading 24-18.

“Sideout. Come on turn it around,” one Moorpark fan said.

The serve went over to the Warriors’ side and was received into the air.

Sophomore setter Chris Griebenow put it up in a good spot and freshman middle blocker Peter Sarmiento, who had zero kills so far, came in to smash the ball into the middle of the Raiders’ defense for the point.

“Felt good to be back,” Sarmiento said after the game.

The Warriors ended a two-game losing streak by beating the Moorpark College (MC) Raiders, 3-1 in sets on Wednesday.

The Warriors rose from the depths of a set two loss on the backs of sophomore outside hitter Casey Wood and freshman outside hitter Cesar Medina. Both Medina and Wood tacked on 16 kills apiece with only nine errors between them.

“Casey came up big, I thought he played well,” sophomore middle blocker Peter Nordel said. “He was hitting so good.”

Wood hit for .345 and Cesar Medina hit for .464. Both players came alive in set four to help carry out the win.

“We played (Wood) when I was a senior (in high school) in the quarterfinals,” Nordel said. “I love it when he gets likes that, it’s something special to see.”

The Raiders did not let many balls fall without hustle, and although they had 32 attacking errors. Their defense was strong with 41 digs and 11 block assists as a team.

Sarmiento, who ended the game, described the Raiders defense as “scrappy.”

Looking toward the Friday match-up against Santa Barbara, coach Richard Blount said losing was simply not an option for the Warriors.

“We know we have to win,” Blount said. “Everybody else knows that too.”

Wood described the positive attitude the Warriors have towards their upcoming fixtures and reflected on EC’s recent poor run of form.

“We’re 100% prepared,” Wood said. “We’ve seen (Santa Barbara) before, we know we have a job to do, and that’s to play volleyball. We didn’t let those two losses get us down.”

Santa Barbara, who beat L.A. Trade Tech Wednesday night, is sitting just half a game behind the Warriors in the conference standings and are in third place.

The Warriors rise to 14-3 overall, 7-3 in conference play retaining sole possession of second place behind first-placed Santa Monica College.

The Warriors will host Santa Barbara on Friday, April 3.