With the game tied at 1 set a piece coming off a second set loss, the womens volleyball team faced one of their biggest challenges so far this season, but were able to come together and earn a four set victory over Mt. San Antonio College 25-9 20-25 25-14 25-22.
Entering the first game, the Warriors came out strong and defeated the Mounties by a wide margin in the first set, but stumbled in the second set.
“Our opponents were really excited to play us and I think they were really nervous in the first set because they made a lot of unforced errors,” Coach Le Valley Pattison said.
Despite playing well in the first set, the Warriors sputtered in the next game mostly due to passing errors.
After falling back to an early deficit in the second set, Erika Kirby was substituted in and steadied the passing game.
“We are lucky enough to have depth at our outside hitter position so when a player is off her game one day, it is not a problem to bring in another hitter to take her spot,” Pattison said.
Unfortunately, EC was not able to rally back and lost the second set, but a few quick fixes before the third set seemed to work as the Warriors went on to win consecutive sets.
“We corrected our passing mistakes after the second set and that allowed our setter a few more options on who to set the ball to,” Pattison said.
Throughout the game, the EC offense played well and spread the ball around effectively allowing for a very high kill percentage against the Mounties.
Ashley Hardy played well having 8 kills, 8 digs and a season high 5 blocks while Deja Dickerson added 9 kills and 2 blocks of her own.
The kill leaders for the game were Amrita Tuladhar and Jo Tulikihihifo having 13 and 14 kills respectively and adding a total of 16 digs between them.
“Jo is looking really solid at the outside hitter position and at this point the job is hers to lose,” Pattison said.
The Warriors played another great game overall defensively accumulated numerous blocks as a team.
“We need to get a lot more blocks from our starters Amrita and Deja, because blocking is the where our defense begins,” Pattison said.
Kiley Tamblyn and Karina Woehrstein led the team defensively and combined for 29 digs, but Sam Taylor surprised the team as she reached up and slapped down a season high 4 blocks along with 12 digs during the EC victory over Mount Sack.
The Warriors look forward to their next game away at L.A. City College in a rematch from a game earlier this season that the Warriors won.
L.A. City College looks to be a much improved team from the last time EC played them and should play well in their home gym.
“As long as we execute our passing game well and limit our hitting errors, we should be able to earn the victory,” Pattison said.
With just one loss this season to Pierce College, the Warriors look ahead hoping to have tough competition to end the season in order to help them be prepared for their upcoming consecutive state championship playoff run.
“We are here in the gym every day until 5:30 practicing for this season because we are all really committed to this team,” Amrita Tuladhar said.