Last year neither of them could play.

One sat on the sideline while her team lost to Golden West in the playoffs.

The other was just a senior at Narbonne High School.

This year, sophomore outside hitter Nicole Echeverri and freshman outside hitter Nickeisha Williams made sure the women’s volleyball team (24-2) beat Golden West (19-6) during the team’s 3-1 victory Saturday night at EC’s South Gym.

“I’ve been waiting for this moment,” Echeverri said. “My physical therapy has been building for this moment, to have a competitive game and just to play with all these sophomores. A lot of them are from North High and I love playing with them.”

Echeverri finished the match with nine kills and 11 digs. Williams lead the team with 16 kills and 7 digs.

“It felt really good,” Williams said. “Jewell (Yandall) was on my team last year, and I didn’t want to lose to her. I knew the team lost to them last year and we wanted to beat them this year.”

The match seemed like it was going for a sweep as the Warriors took the first two games to have a 2-0 lead. The third game was a different story as the team saw itself in a 20-12 hole.

The Warriors would rally to tie the game 24-24, but would fall 26-24 in the third game.

“I think most of the time it’s just us bringing a lot of energy and playing the game we know were good at playing,” sophomore setter Sadie Fraker said. “We didn’t have as much energy in the third game, but we pulled through.”

The team’s demeanor is similar to that of its coach Le Valley Pattison who remained in her seat while the team fell behind in the third game only taking a time-out a handful of times as the team sorted things out for itself.

“It would have been easy to lose patience and get frustrated and not hang in there,” Pattison said. “But, we hung in there and in the fourth game we hung in there even though again, we had passing errors. Our hitters came through. Nickeisha, a freshman had great stats tonight, great leadership.”

The team had great leadership from its sophomores as Darlene Lee, Kimberly Haney and Laynie Thompson Pattison said.

The team will now look to Tuesday as it travels to face Irvine Valley College (23-0) in the regional finals at 6 p.m.