Momentum fell flat as the men’s volleyball team’s passing struggled leading to a loss in four games, 30-24, 26-30, 28-30 and 287-30 to Santa Barbara.
The Warriors hosted L.A. Pierce last night but results were not available upon press time. EC will travel to Moorpark for its third conference game of the season.
Bad passing made the team predictable, which led to many blocks from the opposing side and it would ultimately cost the Warriors (5-3, 0-1 conference) the game.
“We passed poorly and that caused our setter not to have a lot of options and caused their team to block well because they knew where we were setting,” coach Richard Blount said.
With confidence stemming from two previous wins against Grossmont and San Diego Mesa, the Warriors rode a wave of momentum against their opponent that lasted only during the only in the first game.
“Coming into the game, I felt pretty confident because we played pretty well like we did in the last two games,” team captain Rikki Garma said. “The first set we played like the first two matches that we did well in and I felt confident for the rest of the match.”
However, the Warriors’ performance was filled with errors during the second game that they were unable to recover from for the rest of the match.
“I didn’t think we hit our spots as well as we should have and we made mistakes at bad times and errors at the wrong times,’ Garma said.
Outside hitter Corey Palmer helped the team’s offense with his 16 kills. Combined with Palmer’s numbers, the 46 assists and five blocks from setter Daniel Rodrick, led the Warriors which registered a total of 11 blocks, 50 assists, and 47 kills.
However, Santa Monica’s defense predicted the Warriors’ offense after the first game and managed get control the match from that point.
“They served well,” Garma said. “They put us in sticky positions and served tough to our not so good passers.”
Poor ball control forced the team to adjust its game plan, which in the gave it a loss.
“One of the outside hitters who did well, passed poorly, so I can’t say he improved because it forced us to set him all the time whether we wanted to or not,” Blount said. “The team did poorly, and their body language was bad.”
Santa Barbara was able to capitalize on the Warriors’ poor performance.
“The other team was able to feed off it and gain momentum while we kept stepping on ourselves,” Blount said.
The Warriors plan to work on maintaining consistency through out the game in order to avoid collapsing like they did against Santa Monica.
“We had good passing and we broke down while we were ahead, that was where we lost momentum,” Garma said. “I think we have a good outlook on the game, but we need to keep the same mentality and momentum throughout the game.”
With the conference games just beginning, the team remains confident about what it can develop into as the year progresses.
“We’re still a young team, we’re still figuring out how to work together as a team. Rikki is stepping up as a leader,” Palmer said. “We’re improving our passing now in practice, a lot of repetition, doing the same things.”
If the Warriors want to keep up with their conference to contend with state, they need to play to their potential and start winning games at home.
“I like where we are, there are a lot of games left in the season,” Blount said. “We have a long way to go and I like our chances.”
Winning at home is important for the team.
“We need to defend our home court; we’re 2-2 at home, and we should be 4-0 at home no matter what, so we need to improve on that,” Blount said.
Addressing the team’s areas that need improvement has not been difficult for the team who is already working on improving.
“Once we get our passing down and start serving well, we can beat any team,” Sam Tejada said. “With the skill we have, we can go all the way, we just have to be strong mentally.”
