On a day where all the conference pairs were mixed up into a knock-out round of 32 tournament, the only school out of six to have all pairs make it to the second round of playoffs was El Camino.
Antelope Valley, Bakersfield, L.A. Pierce, Rio Hondo and Ventura colleges came to the El Camino Sand Courts for the first round of individual playoffs today, and the Warriors proved why they were the No. 1 seed in the conference by dominating the competition.
Although No. 1 conference seed Laynie Thompson and Sadie Fraker were through the first round with a bye, the rest of El Camino’s starting pairs pushed through to advance to the second round.
“I think we have a good chance of making a run (into the state tournament),” sophomore Brooke Russell said. “It would be kind of fun to play our teammates, but I’m kind of happy we don’t have to play them.”
The Warriors are spread out throughout the bracket, with the only pairs to potentially meet-up in the quarterfinals being the Thompson/Fraker pair and the No. 25 seeded Brooklyn Rubio and Jewel Yandall.
With all five pairs in the second round, coach Le Valley Pattison thinks that the No. 2, 3 and 4 pairs from EC were expected to win.
And even though the match was hard fought Yandall/Rubio surprised many by upsetting the No. 8 seed as the No. 25 seed in straight-sets (28-26, 21-19).
“The first set was crazy,” Yandall said. “Nobody ever really needs to get to 28 (points), but we never gave up and pushed harder. That’s why we came out on top.”
The second round of playoffs will also be at the El Camino Sand Courts on Friday, beginning at 10 a.m. to decide the fate of the quarterfinalists and the conference individual champions.
Pattison said that all quarterfinalists advance to the state tournament next Friday and Saturday at Grossmont College, while EC will host the team regionals next Tuesday.
“To have five (pairs) in the round of 16 is good,” she said. “It’s what we were hoping for. (We won’t) be trying to get in shape (in two days), we’ll practice serving and passing, some movement and digging.”
Here’s the bracket after day one:
