The No. 1 team in the state didn’t seem all that great.

The players are only human and mistakes are made.

Problem for the road team is that those statements go both ways.

No matter how close in skill level teams can be, mistakes hurt. Bad.

The No. 7 El Camino’s men’s volleyball team went on the road against No. 1 Irvine Valley College on Wednesday and were taken down in four sets (25-19, 25-21, 18-25, 25-16).

“Their egos are too big,” EC coach Dick Blount said. “That’s why I benched Pedro. They all think they’re great, but the numbers don’t reflect that.”

The team quickly found themselves in a two-set deficit heading into the third set and there needed to be some changes made.

But these changes come at a price.

“We’re always changing formations,” sophomore outside hitter Cesar Medina said. “It’s hard to get used to it, but I think if we can focus on the formations, we can do it.”

Medina led his team with 15 kills, while Irvine Valley’s Matt August could not be stopped en route to a 19 kill performance.

August began the match in the middle blocker position, but it quickly became apparent the Warriors could not stop him and he was moved to the right side, thundering down kill after kill.

“They were good,” sophomore outside hitter Chris Phanngam said. “The rankings don’t mean anything (though), we could have easily taken this game, (but we just couldn’t do it.)”

EC comes back home to host L.A. Trade Tech College on Friday at 6 p.m.

Trade Tech, as is the case almost every year, is currently winless and the weakest team in the state. The Warriors should get by easy, but it won’t be the same players who started against IVC.

“We’ll see who plays hard at practice,” Blount said. “When our hearts are as big as our head, then we’ll be fine.”