EC women’s volleyball team rallies to beat Mt. SAC in five games

Middle blocker Kimberly Haney goes for a kill against Mt. SAC. Photo credit: Tristan Bellisimo

Down 2-0, facing a sweep the EC women’s volleyball team wasn’t ready to give in.

The team would rally to defeat Mt. San Antonio College 3-2 last Friday.

“We realized in the beginning of the third game that we weren’t going to lose this game,” sophomore setter Sadie Fraker said. “We knew that in the first two games we didn’t play our best, but that wasn’t stopping us from winning the next three.”

Along with facing a 2-0 deficit, the Warriors were without sophomore outside hitter Nicole Echeverri who was out with a cold.

“Nicole is a big part of our team,” Fraker said. “It was tough not having her play, but we had other great players that played well in her position.”

Filling those shoes was sophomore outside hitter Darlene Lee who stepped right in for Echeverri and lead the team with 16 kills in the match.

“It was rough in the first two sets,” Lee said. “We didn’t have the energy that we usually have in all the other games and we were a bit hesitant, but once we got going we started putting pressure against that team and they began to make more mistakes.”

Along with Lee, sophomore middle blocker Kimberly Haney chipped in 15 kills.

“It was exciting (to come back),” Haney said. “We were all super pumped, it was fun seeing us all not giving up and playing like we usually do.”

How the team usually played has helped it go unbeaten in league play and sweep most of the competition the team may face.

“We have been talking about working hard at practice and staying focused,” Fraker said. “We have to play like we want it. When it comes down to it, we know that there are going to be good teams that we can potentially face, but if we focus and play our game we can reach our goals.”

The team will now await its playoff fate and look to continue its dominate play when the playoff begin Nov. 25.

“We have worked so hard and we deserve all of our wins,” Fraker said. “Now all we have to do is work hard and let our playing do the talking.”

Hard work in practice and focusing on the fundamentals that the team will strive for continuing on throughout the playoffs.

“We need to keep our energy up,” Lee said. “We need to work on using the block a little more and keeping up the ball control.”

The team played last night but due to our publication schedule we are unable to release the results, follow our story online at ECCUnion.com.

The team faced Pasadena City College and was going for its first undefeated South Coast Conference run since 2011.