After winning their first conference game against L.A. City College Oct. 3, the women’s volleyball team came together and pulled out two victories against conference rivals Pasadena College Oct. 8 and Long Beach City College Oct. 10 in three games each.
Hard work and some favorable calls from the referee helped give the Warriors a 3-0 record in conference games and 14-1 over the course of the season.
During the away game at Pasadena College, the Warriors started each game of the match off slowly, giving the opponent a 6-7 point lead, but were able to lock up their defense and stage a comeback in every game winning in three games 25-17, 25-20, 29-27.
“We started off slow, but once we got rolling, we played very well,” coach Le Valley Pattison said.
The first two games were won relatively easily compared to the final game, where both teams went back and forth trying to win the match against the very disciplined Pasadena squad.
During the final game, Pasadena led EC by one point and was able to score again against the Warrior defense to win the game, but the referee called an “out of rotation” foul against Pasadena which gave EC the point and another chance to seal a victory.
“We made too many mistakes late in the game and we missed two serves when the game was over twenty, which is never good,” Pattison said.
With another chance in hand, the Warriors rallied together and were able to successfully get the go ahead and winning points with strong team effort.
Every member of the team made significant contributions to the team victory with Ashley Hardy, Deja Dickerson and Jo Tulikihihifo each having eight kills on offense over the course of three games.
“(Hardy) and (Tulikihihifo) played really well for us against Pasadena,” setter Sam Taylor said.
Kara Lei Cummings led the team offensively with 11 kills, but the strong all-around play of Amrita Tuladhar, with four kills, six digs, two blocks and one serving ace, was the difference in the game.
On the opposite side of the court, Taylor and Karina Woehrstein were defensive machines having nine and 16 digs respectively.
“Our outside and middle hitters played great at the end of the game, and (Dickerson) has the highest hitting percentage on the team and she is just a freshman,” Pattison said.
Long Beach City College was the next opponent for EC and the team fought hard to pulled out a three game victory 25-19, 25-17, 25-9.
The first two games were close, but during the final game, the Warriors dominated their opponents, which shattered any of their remaining confidence allowing for an easy 25-9 victory.
Defensively, the Warriors made it very difficult for Long Beach to score due to their defensive digs and tough blocks.
“We knew that (Long Beach) was a very loud team, but we played much louder than they did and got into their heads. I guess that shut off their confidence,” Kirby said.
EC played well on offense and a few women came together and dominated their opponents.
Tulikihihifo had seven kills, four digs and two key blocks, Hardy added nine kills, four digs and one block, Tuladhar knocked down seven kills, six digs and one serving ace and Cummings added six kills offensively against Long Beach.
The Warriors re-energized themselves on defense, where they came up with critical digs allowing for extra opportunities on offense.
“Everything starts with our defense and progresses from there,” Pattison said. “If our defense does not play well, then we don’t play well.”
The Warriors traveled to Cerritos College today, but results were unavailable at press time.
Cerritos combines quick outside hitters with a very fast middle hitter, so the defense will need to step up and make some blocks.
“Our blockers must play well and channel the ball to the defense so that we can have more opportunities to score against them,” Pattison said.
