Swinging its way into the season, the women’s volleyball team has spiked all its competition so far, but has a difficult tournament this weekend followed by a tough match against Santa Monica on Wednesday.

EC played Ventura in the South Gym yesterday, but results were not available at press time.

“Ventura is a top 10 team in the state every year,” assistant coach Richard Blount said. “Last year they swept us at their place. They are going to be tough.”

The team will travel to Pasadena City College for an all-day tournament on Saturday, before hosting Santa Monica at 6 p.m. on Tuesday.

“The tournament is going to be a long damn day,” Blount said. “I hope we have tough competition at the tournament because we need to raise the bar somehow.”

The game vs. Santa Monica is expected to be a hard one for the young team.

With nine freshmen, most of them starters, the team is working to obtain its fourth straight conference title.

“The conference is weak, so we need to look elsewhere for tough competition,” Blount said.

Against Fullerton,the team stepped up to the challenge and gave an impressive performance.

“Taryn Tamblyn came in and played really well,” Blount said.

Tamblyn replaced the starting libero in the first game and ended up with 16 digs in three games.

Timary More had 18 kills in the match, three times as many as anybody else on the team, and had a .739 hitting percentage.

“Timary played great. It was really impressive to watch,” Blount said.

On Sept. 8 the team played against Cypress College in a five-match thriller.

“On the last play, we had a serve hit the top of the net and roll over for the win,” Blount said. “We think they played down to the competition because Cypress isn’t that good; we should have swept them.”

At the beginning of the season, the team went 8-0 in a tournament at Cerritos College.

“It was good thing as well as bad thing at the same time,” Blount said. “Good, well, because we won, but it was bad because I wish we had tougher competition.”

“We have had great bench work and everyone has played in at least one game; we are limited though, and the rest of the season depends on how much the women push each other in practice,” Blount said.