With the regular season coming to an end and the Southern California regional playoffs approaching, the womens’ volleyball team showed it is prepared to make another run at the state championship as it breezed past Cerritos College winning in three games, 25-16, 25-13, 25-15.

The Warriors were able to defeat the Falcons by double digits in almost every set and did not let the opposition get the rhythm going on either side of the ball.

“I was really excited that I got a chance to start against Cerritos because it gave me a chance to get in there and contribute to the team,” Courtney Wilson said.

With freshman middle blocker Deja Dickerson out with a minor injury and not set to return until next week, Wilson got the start and extra playing time in the win over Cerritos, but had a zero percent kill average during the three games.

“(Dickerson) is out with a small injury, and she probably could have played against Cerritos, but we wanted to make sure she was healthy for the games against East Los Angeles and L.A. Trade Tech,” coach LeValley Pattison said.

The women are playing well as a team, but some players need to play with more consistency as they approach the postseason, Pattison said.

“Ashley (Hardy) and Jo (Tulikihihifo) have been hitting the ball well, but Kara (Lei Cummings) has off games sometimes and we need her to play with more consistency,” Pattison said.

When a player is hitting the ball well, the opposing defense cannot try a double team, but they can try to keep the ball away from that player.

“It is our responsibility to know who is hitting the ball well so we can try and keep passing the ball to them to try and score some points,” Pattison said.

The Warriors passed the ball efficiently and made a few hitting errors during the game that could have made the difference between a loss and a victory had they been playing a higher rated team but still managed to have a .300 kill average as a team.

Pattison achnowledged she would like her outside hitters to have a .270 kill average and her middle blockers and right side to have between a .280 and .300 kill average and when making hitting errors it brings that average way down.

The Warriors were dominant on both sides of the ball, but Hardy and Jo Tulikihihifo led the team offensively.

Hardy finished with 10 kills, four digs and two blocks while Tulikihihifo had five kills on six attempts giving her a .833 kill average for the game.

“(Hardy) and (Tulikihihifo) were definitely the MVP’s of the game because it seems like every time they touched the ball they scored,” freshman Kiley Tamblyn said.

Freshman outside hitter Erika Kirby had a strong game gathering nine kills and six digs, but made four hitting errors, lowering her average to .189 for the game.

“Our hitters did really well on offense and defense, but we need to get more blocks defensively,” Pattison said.

The Warriors do not usually block for points on defense, rather the team likes to make a block so that the ball slows down making it easier for the offense to handle the ball and set up a point scoring opportunity.

On defense, the team was anchored by sophomore standout Sam Taylor who had four kills, eight digs and a team high three blocks leading the team to itsr second victory over Cerritos this season.

“(Taylor) did really well on blocking and was amazing when she passed and set the ball for us,” Tamblyn said.

Karina Woehrstein and Tamblyn also played great games defensively combining for 26 digs against the Falcons.

Coming off of their first state title under Pattison, the Warriors look to go far in this years’ playoffs, but still need to beat some talented teams to end the regular season if they expect to repeat as state champions.

“I am really looking forward to playing Mt. San Antonio because they are a crazy team to beat when they play at home,” Tamblyn said.

EC defeated Mt. SAC in four games in their previous meeting and look to take a three game victory this time around.

“They are a very tough team to play so we will not look forward to the Regional playoffs until we have gotten past them,” Pattison said. “We take it one game at a time.”