The Warriors went into Thursday’s first set without their star offensive player, sophomore opposite hitter Taylor Brydon, and found themselves tied 5-5 against the last place team in the South Coast Conference – South.
But it didn’t matter after the players made the adjustments mid match and threw the Beavers away to end the set on a 20-2 run.
The No. 10 El Camino women’s volleyball team (20-3, 7-0) went on the road and handily dismantled the L.A. Harbor College Seahawks (25-7, 25-15, 25-14) on Thursday night.
“It was very slow (in the beginning),” freshman outside hitter Alex Strauss said. “But we killed them.”
The match was first place against last place, and although the team would normally be in high spirits for the match, there was no hype tonight.
“I knew it wouldn’t be a hard game,” freshman middle blocker Cheyanne Smith said. “But the way our coaches (are), we can’t slack.”
With the win, the Warriors are en route to a season finale on the road against No. 23 Long Beach City College (currently second place in the SCCS).
The LBCC Vikings are currently 6-1 in the conference, with their only loss coming at the hands of a five-set thriller against El Camino, and the match-up this Wednesday will determine if the Warriors will be sole conference champions or share the title.
If the Warriors win, it will be the third-consecutive season where the team goes undefeated in conference.
“I think there’s nothing we can do about (the conference title),” EC coach Le Valley Pattison said. “We just have to win, and I would like us to show up and play hard.”
The team is undefeated, but there have been glimpses of the team not being able to come out with energy.
In the conference-opener, the Warriors had to fight back from a two-set deficit to reverse sweep the Cerritos College Falcons, while the first match-up between Long Beach and EC had the Warriors struggling early before finding some rhythm in the fourth and fifth sets.
“We practice really hard (for matches),” Strauss said. “(But) I don’t know, (we can’t) play how we did today. We did not bring the fire (and) we need to bring it (on Wednesday).”
