First place in the South Coast South vs. first place in the South Coast North.
A combined 26-4 record for the 2016 season going into Friday’s game. The match was supposed to be close between the visiting El Camino women’s volleyball team (14-3 overall) and the Mt. San Antonio College Mounties (13-2), but sophomore middle blocker Micah Hammond banged down a kill for the Warriors to give them an 8-6 lead.
Freshman outside hitter Aiko Waters came up to serve following Hammond’s kill and it was over from there; the Warriors closed out the first set on a 17-6 run and swept the Mounties (25-12, 25-21, 25-10).
“Honestly, I was not expecting it to be this easy,” Hammond said. “But I thought they were a really good team, I expected them to be a little bit better. I definitely think they’re a better team than what they showed.”
El Camino coach Le Valley Pattison said the defense for the Warriors did well on the night and the Mounties just couldn’t get it rolling.
“I feel like our team played much better defense (than Mt. SAC),” she added. “We had a lot of options on our offense which opened up a lot of holes (in their defense).”
The energy the Warriors brought out in this match has yet to be seen against top-ranked opponents: EC got swept by No. 8 Cypress earlier this season and couldn’t find its groove, No. 7 MiraCosta outplayed the Warriors at the Cerritos Falcon Invitational, while No. 1 Grossmont throttled the Warriors at home in a four-set win.
Up against No. 16 Long Beach, the team went down 2-1 in sets and had to scratch, bite and claw its way to a 3-2 win, but today against the No. 19 Mounties, the Warriors went off.
“They weren’t expecting us to come out that hard,” Waters said. “I was looking forward to a much better fight, maybe it just wasn’t their day.”
The last time Pattison and the Warriors lost to a South Coast Conference opponent was Oct. 13, 2013. The current streak is now at 41-straight wins.
The Warriors have two home matches next week with Pasadena City College on Wednesday and Rio Hondo College on Friday.
