Frustration set in for the Warriors.
One set in the El Camino beach volleyball team’s No. 2 and 3 pairs’ matches were all that EC needed to take a win against the visiting No. 2 seed from the Orange Empire Conference, Golden West College.
That one set would not go in the favor of the Warriors and the GWC Rustlers tied the match, 2-2.
It all landed in the No. 1 pairs match and sophomores Laynie Thompson and Sadie Fraker were not up to their usual standards of play.
“I just know we can beat them,” Fraker said. “I wasn’t playing very well, it’s just hard when you know you want to win, but (you’re down).”
The top pair from El Camino dropped the match that would have earned the Warriors a ticket to the state team’s tournament at Grossmont on Friday.
Golden West eventually took a 3-2 win over El Camino, and then a 4-1 win over San Diego Mesa, while El Camino lost to GWC and then beat Mesa 4-1.
“I think everyone is disappointed at the performance today,” coach Le Valley Pattison said. “I think our (No. 1, 2 and 3 pairs) aren’t used to all losing.”
Earlier in the season, Golden West visited EC in a 3-2 loss and made up for it today by beating the Warriors in the same score.
“I mean, obviously, it feels pretty amazing,” Golden West No. 1 pair player Jasmine Hogan said. “I feel like we all worked hard and it was well earned by all of us.”
Jewel Yandall and Brooklyn Rubio, El Camino’s No. 5 pair, continued their dominance over other No. 5 team’s and has yet to lose a match to community college opponents, apart from Thompson and Fraker.
“Today’s performance was excellent,” Yandall said. “It’s important that we keep performing the way that we do going into state, because we do want to stay there Saturday and Sunday (to advance deep into the playoff rounds).”
The team is out of the state team’s tournament, while the qualifying four team’s are Cabrillo College, Golden West, defending state champions Irvine Valley College and this year’s state championship host, Grossmont College.
There are four Warrior pairs that have qualified for the individual pair’s tournament along with 28 other pairs from around the state.
El Camino has a state-wide lead with those four pairs, while Irvine Valley College and MiraCosta advanced three of their pairs. The rest of the schools advanced two, one or zero pairs, and no team advanced all five.
While the Warriors are out of team playoffs, “it gives us (more time to focus on the individual tournament,” sophomore Sadie Fraker said.
Michelle Shimamoto, sophomore, thinks its exciting to focus on the individual pairs and wants to win.
Isabel Miller, who is part of San Diego Mesa’s team, and her partner Daniella Suarez advanced to the state tournament as a quarter-finalist in the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference.
“I think we really (have to) focus on teamwork,” she said. “We know started off the season really strong, and even though this tournament was rough for us, we’re going to take it and come back even stronger.”
The No. 1 pair from Golden West College, Jasmine Hogan and Jilianne Pineda, advanced to the state tournament not just as the runner-up in the Orange Empire Conference, but also as part of the team tournament; and their focus isn’t going to be on how to get better.
“We’re going to have a lot of rest, just kind of relaxing our bodies,” Hogan said. “(We) have to mentally and physically prepare our bodies for the weekend.”
UPDATE: 10:31 a.m. May 4, 2016: Golden West College is part of the Orange Empire Conference, not the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference.
