Camaraderie will be a key issue facing the volleyball team because of five new players, but it didn’t seem to bother the Warriors when they defeated San Diego Mesa, 3 sets to 1, on the road Friday.

The Warriors hope to build momentum from the win as they travel to Grossmont College to take on the Grifins Wednesday before a two-game home stand starting next Friday against Santa Barbara City.

With the addition of the players, the gelling process has been notably slower this year and with that comes the inconsistency of a young team trying to work together.

“We’re self-centered right now, but if we work together, we’ll play a lot better,” Randall Maryott, middle blocker, said.

“I think we’re still in the process of improving our team chemistry,” Rikki Garma, setter and team captain, said.

The inconsistencies of the Warriors (3-2) have led to a lack of focus in closing out matches that should have been victories in the early part of the season.

Toward the end of last season, the same stroke of bad luck hit the team that has been the reason behind its two losses this season.

As a result, the team just missed the playoffs by a couple of matches that it had a chance of winning earlier in the season.

“Teams that we lost to played better than we did,” Richard Blount, coach, said.

The match against Santa Barbara is the first in a series of conference matches that will be a measuring stick for how well the Warriors stack up against division rivals.

“We’re 3-2 for a reason; everyone in our conference is good,” Blount said.

With EC struggling in the initial stages of the season, the players see no reason why anyone should panic because they believe that they can regroup as the season progresses.

“Volleyball is a mental sport, and I don’t think we’re there yet,” Rick Browning, middle blocker, said.

Despite the mental mistakes so far this season, the players are optimistic about it only being so early.

Once everyone finds his chemistry with one another, the team believes it has the components to put everything together and make a run at the state title.

“With a little more time, we can be state champions, but we’re not there yet,” Browning said.

Along with learning to play together, the team believes that the game against San Diego revealed other areas that the team must improve upon before it can compete with the elite powerhouses of the conference.

“I think our serving in general was good, and we were getting a lot of aces,” Garma said. “However, I think our blocking still needs a lot of work.”

Members believe that once the they become comfortable with each other, and they develop the mentality to put their opponents away, then this will be a solid team.

Give or take a few games, the team knows what things to work on, and it hopes to make the corrections before it begins its conference match play.

That tough stretch includes matches against Los Angeles Pierce Wednesday followed by a match at Moorpark next Friday and returning home to play Santa Monica March 14.

To be sure, the team posts a winning record at the moment.

“We have all the pieces to be a great team,” Garma said. “We have pretty good individual players.”