The Warriors volleyball team had trouble holding a lead Friday, as EC lost three straight matches to the L.A. Pierce Brahmas.

The Warriors held a 29-27 lead late in the first game before serving the ball out of bounds, which allowed the Brahmas to score four consecutive points, taking the first game 29-31.

The Brahmas used the momentum from the first game to take the next two games 21-30, 28-30 dropping the Warriors to 5-4 and 1-1 in South Coast Conference play.

“(Pierce) were able to capitalize (on the errant serve) and springboard that game into the other two,” coach Dick Blount said.

Although they were beaten in straight sets, the Warriors had chances to not only take the first game, but the third game as well, which ended in the Brahmas’ favor.

“We are playing at a very high level; we’re just not able to finish games. That is our problem right now,” designated libero Sam Tejada said.

Friday’s match started very similar to last Wednesday’s match against Santa Barbara College, but had a different outcome.

The Warriors trailed Santa Barbara by two games early before waking up and taking the last three games to earn a 31-33, 20-30, 30-19, 36-34, 15-10 victory.

Outside hitter Corey Palmer was instrumental in the comeback over Santa Barbara, often earning Warrior points with kills.

“We were obviously better than that team, it just took us a little time to wake up,” Palmer said of Wednesday’s slow start.

As Friday’s loss displayed, the Warriors cannot afford to take any plays off. In two league matches, the Warriors are 0-4 in the first two games, which is very troubling to coach Blount.

“The other team comes out and hits the ground running and (we) say, ‘gee, maybe we should play harder now'” Blount said, “We’ve spent a lot of time talking about that and trying to correct that, so we’ll see if we’ve fixed it.”

It is imperative that the Warriors find a way to come out stronger if they want to keep pace in a very competitive conference. Their first test was Wednesday against Long Beach City College, which came into the match with a 2-0 record in league play.

“They’re very good,” Blount said of Long Beach.

“Everyone in our conference is good so we’ve got to show up to play.”