This year, the women’s volleyball team hosted seven Southern California colleges during its annual EC Classic on Saturday and emerged as the only undefeated team in the tournament.
“This was a great chance for our squad to play against some talented teams early in the season,” coach Levalley Pattison said.
Seven teams were invited to play over the weekend along with the Warriors, including a very talented team from Pierce College.
The women played two games on Saturday, the first against College of the Canyons, followed by Pierce.
The Warriors defeated College of the Canyons in three sets 25-15, 25-22 and 25-18.
“They had a lot of passing problems that (freshman) Deja Dickerson and (sophomore) Ashley Hardy really capitalized on,” Pattison said.
“Those women really took over the match.”
During the first match, sophomore’s Karina Woehrstein and Sam Taylor turned into defensive machines, with 16 and 19 digs respectively.
On the offensive side, freshman outside hitters Erika Kirby and Dickerson stepped up their game combining for 16 kills during the victory. Hardy was unstoppable while serving, recording six serving aces against Canyons.
The win over College of the Canyons gave the Warriors an added boost they needed to defeat a very tough Pierce team.
“Playing Pierce was an opportunity for our team to see how we match up against one of the areas great teams,” Pattison said.
Against Pierce, the Warriors earned the victory in four matches 25-23, 29-27, 28-30 and 25-19.
“After we lost the third game, we came out really strong in the last game and were able to keep up that pace all game long,” Dickerson said.
Pierce won the third game of the match 30-28, but the Warriors came back to win the last game 25-19 to pick up the match victory improving their record to 5-0.
“Our bench was rallying behind our players after every point and showing a lot of motivation and support for the team,” Dickerson said.
The enthusiasm and support along with the great play of the team’s playmakers gave EC the extra edge they needed to pull off the victory over Pierce.
“(Kirby) and Jo Tulikihihifo played a great match, and Kara Lei Cummings played her best game of the year so far,” Pattison said.
Against Pierce, the offense excelled, as sophomore Amrita Tuladhar spiked 9 kills along with 12 digs, and MVP Taylor racked up 20 digs and nine kills.
“(Taylor) made some great plays against Pierce, she was able to give perfect sets off of bad passes which really helped our team,” Tulikihihifo said.
EC received great all around play from Hardy, Tuladhar and Tulikihihifo.
Hardy played an economical match having 10 kills on just 11 attempts along with six digs and a team leading four blocks while Tulikihihifo and Tuladhar combined for 25 kills, 19 digs and four aces.
“Our defense is very quick and we were able to get the ball to Kiley Tamblyn so she could create offensive opportunities for us,” Pattison said.
“The more offensive opportunities we have, the more points we score,” Pattison said.
Perhaps the most impressive player of the game though was Woehrstein, who stepped up on defense.
Woehrstein had 38 digs during the match against Pierce, which gave the Warriors plenty of scoring opportunities.
So far this season, the women are undefeated, going 5-0 while only losing two matches.
The women played Cypress yesterday, but results were not available at press time.
The women will travel to San Diego this weekend to compete in the San Diego Mesa tournament. The women will host Santa Monica Wednesday at the South Gym at 6 p.m.
Last season, the women captured the San Diego Mesa tournament championship on their way to going 12-1 in the month of September.
“The EC Classic gave our team a chance to play good teams in a tournament setting,” Pattison said.
“It gave our players some much needed experience to help us through the rest of the season,” Pattison said.
