Despite winning two games as the No. 5 seed in the state, the Warriors were bumped down to No. 10 seed, according to the California Community College Athletics Association.
A decisive victory against L.A. Trade Tech in three sets on Friday, Oct. 6 was the Warriors’ fifth consecutive victory in three sets.
EC won the sets by the scores of 25-9, 25-14 and 25-8, due to consistent play by the entire team.
“I thought (the team) did a pretty good job, we still played our same way even though they were struggling to get the ball over,” EC head coach Liz Hazell said. “I thought that was nice to see, I got to get everybody in, everyone contributed which is always good.”
Sophomore outside hitter Jaylin Motley led the charge by playing all three sets and having 11 kills, which was a team high for the game.
“(The game) was a little bit of a slower pace than we’re used to but I think we did what we were supposed to,” Motley said. “I think we did really good offensively, that was nice.”
Freshmen setters Sarah Dyer and Keily Morimoto combined for 33 assists. Dyer also added two kills. Sophomore middle blocker Melissa Euyoque also added four kills.
“I thought our setters did a good job distributing balls, putting up nice, hittable sets,” Hazell said. “Melissa’s gotten to play a bunch in the middle and she’s did a really good job.”
The Warriors will play their next five games on the road before coming home to play Chaffey College, their last match of the month.
One of their road games includes a match against MiraCosta College, the No. 16 seed in the state.
Despite MiraCosta being a ranked team, the two losses that EC has suffered this season are against teams that are in the top five rankings, Bakersfield being No. 5 in the state and Grossmont being No. 3 in the state.
“We’ve played very hard compared to the competition,” freshman defensive specialist Chantell Miranda said. “We make sure not to stoop down to their level and keep the energy up throughout the whole time.”
The Warriors will play Long Beach College at Long Beach on Wednesday, Oct. 11.
“No drastic changes (will be made for Long Beach), just working hard with two days of practice before we play them,” Hazell said. “We want to get better each day and just tweak a few little things and hopefully come out playing strong.”
