In a one game tie-breaker, the women’s volleyball team defeated Golden West 30-24, 29-31, 21-30, 30-22 and 18-16 on Dec. 2 to become the state champions after 24 years without a state title.
The Warriors began the two-loss elimination state tournament by defeating Cabrillo 30-14, 30-25 and 30-21 on Nov. 30. The next day, the women beat Sacramento 30-18,30-18 and 30-21 for their second win in the tournament, however, they were defeated later that day by Golden West 21-30, 30-13, 25-30 and 25-30.
“This time we were both in it to win,” Marcella Hernandez said. “They came out strong and fought back a lot harder.”
Despite being just one loss away from elimination, the team didn’t lose its focus.
“We really had no pressure,” Hernandez said. “We knew we had to work hard. We had set our minds and hearts to winning and achieved it.”
EC’s next win was against Fullerton, 30-17, 30-22 and 20-22 which set up the team to face Golden West again in the tournament final.
Since the match was Golden West’s first loss of the tournament, there had to be a tie-breaking game to decide the winner.
“We knew we had to play relaxed and not tense at all because that’s what causes mistakes,” Hernandez said.
Adding to the uncertainty of the outcome was the fact that no team coming out of the losers bracket had ever won the state title and that Golden West had never lost when playing a state final. Yet, that wasn’t enough to affect the relaxed attitude the team used to approached the entire season and tournament with.
“The women knew they still had to play one more game and they felt good about it,” coach Le Valley Pattison said. “They had a twenty-minute break in between games and they put their feet up for ten of those minutes. Then they asked the DJ to play whatever it is they dance to and they danced for five minutes before warming-up for the last game.”
The final game was a back and forth struggle in which the Warriors were able to take and maintain a lead to win by a final score of 30-26.
Hernandez, who had two kills, two digs and three blocks during the final game, made the last block that gave the Warriors the title.
“it was a really good feeling,” Hernandez said. “I like closing games and having that mind set.”
Hernandez had 54 kills and 32 blocks during the tournament, Lauren Simmons had 78 kills and Karina Woehrstein had 96 digs. All were named to the all-tournament team while Sam Taylor, with 62 digs and was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
“It’s a great accomplishment,” Pattison said. “This was the first team in the losers bracket to come out and win it all.”
