The outside hitters were struggling to find their groove, and the first set was riddled with attacking errors for the visitors.
The home team wasn’t doing any better and the offense from both women’s volleyball teams were almost non-existent.
The quiet gym didn’t make a case for either side, and the cheering was one-step shy of white noise.
Five kills for the visiting freshman middle blocker/opposite hitter Taylor Brydon came in for the clutch first-set win over the home team and the away squad would ride that momentum all night.
Behind strong defense and good setting, El Camino’s women’s volleyball (21-2 overall, 11-0 in the South Coast Conference) would ride Brydon’s (12 kills, seven digs, two block assists) performance into a sweep (25-18, 25-13, 25-16) over Long Beach City College (6-15 overall, 4-7 in the SCC) on Friday.
The players on the team thought the Vikings’ defense was good, but EC head coach Le Valley Pattison thought otherwise (14 attacking errors between sophomore outside hitters Nickeisha Williams and Kezia Boyer).
“Our outside hitters played terrible,” she said. “It wasn’t (LBCC) playing well, our attacking was pretty poor, but the middles and (Brydon) played well. (Our) overall defense has improved, we’re picking things up and reacting faster.”
The defense played particularly well tonight with the team accounting for 49 digs compared to LBCC’s 27. The Warriors were led by sophomore Brooke Russell and Williams, who had 11 digs a piece, followed by Brydon’s seven and freshman setter Nina Wyer’s five.
Brydon said that she was proud of her performance, but gave credit to her defense that helped her perform so well.
“They would tell me what was open,” she said. “So I listened. We played good defense and adjusted well, we could work on covering our hitters.”
Even with the hitters and Pattison’s thoughts on the poor outside hitting, the Warriors had four players with double-digit kills and the offense outscored Long Beach 47-17 on kills alone.
Behind Brydon’s 12, Boyer added 12, sophomore middle blocker Jewel Yandall had 11 and Williams posted 10. Yandall said the match was fun and her attacking was good.
“I love Long Beach,” she said. “They’re always so fun to play, (the offense was good) and I was smashing the balls, except the times I was being blocked.”
Women’s volleyball will head back home to prepare for the match against Mt. San Antonio College on Tuesday in the South Gym at 6 p.m.
The Mt. SAC Mounties won their game against L.A. Trade Tech on Friday and are now 10-1. The Warriors will host what will be a match to determine if EC gets sole possession of first, or shared possession.
