With good blocking, serving, setting in the middle and outside hitting, the women’s volleyball team beat Cuesta 30-26, 24-30, 30-26, 30-15 in its second round playoff game Saturday at home.
EC will move on to play at the Fresno State Tournament. The tournament will be two-game elimination and will host teams Sacramento, San Joaquin, Cabrillo and Santa Rosa from Northern California. EC, College of the Canyons, Fullerton and Golden West will represent Southern California in the two-game elimination tournament.
The Warriors’ first playoff win was last Thursday against Moorpark 30-16, 30-24 and 30-16. EC will face Cabrillo tomorrow at 3 p.m. at Fresno.
“I am excited for the team to play,” coach LeValley Pattison said. “We have worked hard to get here.”
Saturday’s game was a back and fourth struggle between the Warriors and Cuesta, both of whom used the power of their offense and defense to impose their game on the court. EC took the lead in the first game and maintained it until the end. For the second game, the Warriors fell behind and were able to built momentum toward the end but couldn’t fully recover.
“They were a though and good challenge,” Pattison said.
The third game was a back and forth struggle to obtain and keep the lead, which EC successfully did. Wining the third game shifted momentum to EC, who came out for the fourth game and dominated with its offense and defense to keep Cuesta at 15 points.
“We have been passing great all year,” Pattison said. “It feels good to get the regional finals out of the way.”
Offensively, the team was led by Kerry O’Brien with 19 kills, Marcella Hernandez with 18 kills and Lauren Simmons with 15 kills. On defense, Karina Woehrstein had 17 digs; Sam Taylor and Beatriz Kainoa both had 12 digs; Christina Towers had 10 digs while Simmons contributed with nine digs of her own.
Despite the strong performance by the team, there is nothing taken lightly, and the team is looking at every team as having the ability to win.
“Every team up there is good,” Pattison said. “We just have to do well.”
There is confidence in what the team can do and their high expectations for the playoffs.
“We’ve grown as a team and are ready to fight,” sophomore Kiana Seber said. “We are not all new on the team this year. We are better prepared and we know what to expect.”
The depth the team has shown throughout the season adds confidence to a team that believes it has matured from the beginning of the season.
“The great thing about our team is that we don’t depend on just one player,” Seber said. “We are just a very good team.”
