With volleyball season in full swing, the Warriors are bringing their best to the court, but unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to win last Friday’s match.
In a close game against Santa Barbara Community College, the Warriors lost all three periods, starting off the season 0 – 1.
The team’s next match will be against Long Beach City College tomorrow at home. The match begins at 6 p.m.
“The ref hurt us a couple of times,” Dick Blount, coach, said. “We (the coaches) were pleased with (the team’s) effort.”
With an intense start, the team played with tremendous effort against SBCC, who matched the Warriors in both talent and size.
Point for point, the Warriors battled to stay on top, despite the raucous crowd for SBCC and a few bad calls from the referee.
Jonny Libero, 18, one of the starters, said he found that overall they were successful in coming together and working as a team to take on the opponent.
In preparation for the game, the team “did a lot of running, serving and passing,” Libero said.
Falling behind in preseason with a 1 – 7 record, the Warriors intend on picking up momentum in order to get their first win this season.
“(The team) competed. It was not a bad night,” Blount said.
Chris Ceballos, middleblocker, had no complaints about the team’s performance either.
“I liked our team chemistry. We all came to the court focused and ready to play,” Ceballos said.
Toward the closing of the second period, the game intensified with everything from balls netting, a couple of outs, an untied shoelace and even an injured ankle.
Midplay, one Warrior injured his ankle while blocking the ball and limped to the sidelines where his teammates encouraged him to continue playing.
Blount was not surprised with the injury and said it was each teammate’s responsibility to wear ankle braces and that he failed to do so that night.
Regardless, the injured player continued playing throughout the remainder of the match with a slight limp and still managed to spike the ball during the third period.
With nothing holding them back, the Warriors intend on improving every aspect of their sport and look forward to the next match.
With both Blount and the team satisfied with their performance Friday night, all that remains for the Warriors is to play their best and quench their thirst for their first victory.