The women’s volleyball team continued its run toward the playoffs Friday night, sweeping L.A. Trade Tech in three consecutive games 25-10, 25-7, 25-9 en route to clinching the South Coast Conference championship.
The women traveled to Mt. San Antonio College yesterday, but results were unavailable at press time.
On Friday, the women knew they would have an easy match, as the Beaver’s volleyball program is still very young.
“We used the game to work on offense and to limit our errors,” coach LeValley Pattison said. “Hopefully, they will have a better team next year.”
Leading the way for the Warriors was sophomore Ashley Hardy, who finished with eight kills and three digs, freshman Erika Kirby had seven kills, and sophomore Sam Taylor finished with 33 assists and two kills.
“It’s tough to play against teams that aren’t as competitive,” sophomore Karina Woehrstein, who finished with three kills, said. “Games like that make us focus on the fundamentals. We try and work on the smaller things.”
With the playoffs set to begin on Tuesday, the women looked at yesterday’s game against Mt. SAC as a preparation for what is to come in the coming weeks.
“Everyone is so excited (to play Mt. SAC),” Woehrstein said. “We haven’t had a good, competitive game in a while.”
The Warriors, who are ranked No. 2 in the state, went into yesterday’s game at Mt. SAC with a 24-1 record overall and 13-0 in the South Coast Conference play.
Pattison acknowledged that the Warriors should not overlook Mt. SAC, especially in the final game of the season.
“They play very well at home. They know a win will help their seeding in the playoffs,” Pattison said. “It is a big game for both teams.”
Against L.A. Trade Tech, freshman Kara Lei Cummings added five kills, while freshman Christina Theobald added five of her own kills while adding 12 digs and Woehrstein adding three kills of her own.
“We communicated a lot better (against L.A. Trade Tech),” freshman Jo Tulikihihifo said. “We have a good amount of momentum going into the playoffs. We have really bonded on the court this season.”
Woehrstein acknowledged that this season and last season’s playoff runs are very similar.
“We are going into the playoffs about the same way we were last year, but we also know what we need to work on,” Woehrstein said. “We need to work on all aspects of our game, especially our defense and blocking.”
While the Warrior’s first round playoff opponent has not yet been confirmed, Woehrstein acknowledged that she was excited to get the playoffs underway.
“I’m excited to play in the first round,” Woehrstein said. “We still need to work on the small things and then put those things together as a team.”
With the Warriors not facing the kind of competition Pattison would have liked to preprare her team for the playoffs, she still conducts practices as if it were a game setting.
“We try and get the women a good level of competition during practices in order to up the level of concentration,” Pattison said. “We have them work on three to specific things during the practices and hopefully they will put those things together in the game and get a good result out of them.”
While the Warriors did not overlook L.A. Trade Tech, they used the game to focus on things they normally would not get to focus on in a game setting.
“(The L.A. Trade Tech game) helped us focus on the fundamentals,” Woehrstein said. “We just try to work on the team aspect of the game and focus on the small things we need to do.”
“We know what we have to work on (going into the playoffs),” Tulikihihifo said.
