In the second match of the day, the No. 2 pair from El Camino’s beach volleyball team needed to come up with the match win.

After EC sophomores Nickeisha Williams and Michelle Shimamoto (the No. 2 pair) lost the second set, there needed to be a shift in the plays and stoppage of the errors.

“I felt like we get a little bit too anxious (trying to win),” Williams said. “Instead of relaxing and playing our game and focusing on ourselves.”

At the end of the third set, Williams and Shimamoto pulled out a win and pushed the Warriors to a 3-2 match-score victory over the Golden West College Rustlers on Wednesday.

With the win over Golden West (3-1 record) and the 4-1 win over San Diego Mesa College (2-3) earlier today, the El Camino beach volleyball team is now 5-0 on the season.

Golden West came with the competitive energy to push the Warriors to its closest match-score of the season, and with the No. 1 pair for EC losing both matches today, there are a lot of things to learn.

“Figuring out that you have to compete the whole time,” EC head coach Le Valley Pattison said. “(And making) the scruffy plays. (But) it should be easy (to keep the energy).”

Sophomore Jewel Yandall (No. 5 pair player) and Laynie Thompson (No. 1 pair player) both felt that Golden West was the best so far (excluding California State Northridge).

“(Golden West) was tough competition,” Yandall said. “Definitely stronger than Mesa. Not getting frustrated with each other, not being so lazy. I felt like we were doing good, but we (have to) work on those things.”

Thompson and partner Sadie Fraker were swept in both matches today, but each one could have gone either way.

“(They) were tough teams,” Thompson said. “We struggled with our personal games, I think we could have beaten both of those teams, but a lot of it was our own errors and not coming out strong from the very beginning. (Golden West) was probably the best.”

El Camino will host Rio Hondo and Antelope Valley on March 18 at the Sand Courts, matches begin at 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m.