After being swept in straight games by Moorpark Friday, it is time for coach Dick Blount and the rest of men’s volleyball to get back to fundamentals.
Friday’s match was the worst performance by the Warriors since South Coast Conference play started, Blount said. The men lost each game by a large margin, falling by scores of 18-30, 24-30, 26-30.
The men have a week off after yesterday’s game at Santa Monica before hosting Santa Barbara City on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
Although they were blown out, the Warriors were not physically overmatched by Moorpark. The difference between the two sides was Moorpark was fundamentally sound while EC was a fundamental disaster.
“We played poorly in all facets of the game and need to work on the ABC’s.” Blount said, “(The teams does not) dive for balls and they don’t serve to the targets we give them.”
“We gave away too many easy points (to Moorpark) due to a lack of communication,” outside hitter Craig Narr said.
Many times, returnable balls would fall between three or four Warriors who did not go for the ball thinking someone else was going to.
“No one was being aggressive,” Narr said. “Everyone was kind of depending on somebody else to go after (the ball).”
Serving was also not up to par for the Warriors, as they often served the ball out of bounds, into the net, or to the wrong target.
“Mental errors off of serves not only cost us valuable points, but valuable momentum as well,” libero Sam Tejada said.
“I think (those errors) are all in between the ears,” Tejada said. “It’s all up in your head and at this point it’s all about focus and maturity.”
The Warriors came out flat and with no energy against Moorpark, Narr said, despite coach Blount drilling the importance of starting strong into the player’s heads.
EC fell behind quickly, losing eight of the first nine points in the first game and continued to struggle throughout the match.
“We’ve lost every game one in conference play,” Blount said.
Blount noted the Warriors are 0-4 in game ones, 0-4 in game twos and 1-3 in game threes.
While the overall performance was poor, the Warriors did show some life in the third game.
EC fought its way back into the game, which got under the skin of Moorpark. Emotions got the better of one Moorpark player who threw the volleyball at an official following a controversial point for the Warriors. The action resulted in a yellow-card for the player, which seemed to fire up the rest of Moorpark as they followed the incident by taking six out of the next eight points and winning the match.
After starting off conference play with a win against Santa Barbara, the Warriors have been swept in three straight games, bringing their conference record to 1-3.
“This (three-game) losing skid can be attributed to a lack of focus and work ethic from our standpoint,” Blount said.
Wednesday’s match against Santa Monica College was the Warriors first shot to end the three game losing streak.
“(The team) needs to get its heads out of its butts and concentrate,” Blount said. “We need to come to practice and work hard.”
