El Camino College’s beach volleyball team continues its win streak reaching 14 wins after defeating the Rio Hondo Roadrunners and the Moorpark Raiders on Friday, March 25.

The Warriors’ string of victories follows a rough start to the season with three losses since returning to the sand after the cancellation of their 2020 and 2021 seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Warriors beach volleyball, whose overall standing is 14-3, took to the sand against the 2-11 Rio Hondo Roadrunners, competing simultaneously with their top five pairs on five courts that lay across the sandpit behind El Camino’s South Gym.

One of the No. 3 pairs, Diana Enriquez, explained how the first three losses of the season were demoralizing to the team but as coaches made changes to the pairs she eventually found her rhythm and got more aggressive in her playstyle.

“We just got a little bit more uncomfortable and we took the opponent’s weakness as an opportunity to get better,” Enriquez said.

Top five pairs Fayth Rascon & Lauren McCarthy, Leafa Juarez & Brea Rutledge, Ginia Goods & Diana Enriquez, Emily Uhrinak & Kaila Siu and Nofo Selu & Makaela Wilson defeated the Roadrunners in their first match of the day winning all five of their sets.

After Rio Hondo and Moorpark faced off against each other, the Warriors returned to the sand to start their second match of the day against the overall 0-3 Moorpark Raiders, only switching up their No. 3 and No. 4 pairs and subbing in one No. 5 pair player.

Coach Liz Hazell explains how minimizing mistakes and keeping calm in chaos is important to keep the win streak going forward as they head into the playoff season.

“We’re doing really well but just a lot of little things like taking care of the ball and hustling out here on the beach,” Hazell said, “there’s only two of you so it’s a lot of work to cover [the court] and to not think the ball is coming right to you.”

The Warriors continued their streak as they defeated Moorpark, only giving up their No. 2 pair set to Raiders Makenna Majus and Tyler Mobley, winning in the rest of their sets bringing in the final match win of 4-1.

One of the No. 5 pairs, Athina Sarreas, explains her experience playing beach volleyball opposed to indoor volleyball for her first season with the El Camino Warriors.

“I played indoor [volleyball] as a middle blocker, so I’m not used to getting as many touches as I do now, but I enjoy it a lot,” Sarreas said.

The other No. 5 pair, Nofu Selu, highlights how the changes in the lineup have been a challenge, but also brought a lot of chemistry with her teammates.

“For me, it was a little bit different because now that we have been switching it up with our pairs I get to play with two partners now,” Selu said.

Despite switches to the lineup, Sarreas and Selu believe that the changes have been successful and progressed the team a long way since the beginning of the season.

“From three straight losses to 14 wins is a big jump,” Selu said, “I think the success has really brought us a lot of pride.”

The Warriors beach volleyball team hopes to extend their win streak further as they go into a two-week break before returning to the sandpit at El Camino College April 8, against Mt. San Antonio and Victor Valley.

Editor’s Note:

Added proper byline on March 28 at 1:49 p.m.

Fixed grammatical mistake in a photo caption on March 29 at 12:20 p.m.