After a morning of heavy wind and rainstorms, the women’s beach volleyball match between the Orange Coast Pirates and the El Camino College Warriors commenced as weather conditions improved on Thursday, Feb. 23.
Five matches were held between both teams on the scattered sand courts, with the Pirates overwhelming the Warriors 4-1, extending their win streak to five so far this season.
The previously undefeated Warriors took their first blow of the season leaving them at 7-1 overall.
El Camino coach LeValley Pattison said the team did not play its best, but will come back to practice and make adjustments for the next match.
“We played okay, not great, but we will learn from this loss,” Pattison said.
Pattison said that the number one duo’s player Emily Uhrinak was out due to injury leading Diana Enriquez to play with Francheska Aguilar from the number two duos. The duo’s swap left the rest of the roster mixed as adjustments were made.
El Camino coach, Katie Roberts gave her thoughts on the performance of Crystal Salgado and Sophia Ortiz, who defeated Leah Thibault and Natalia Brandlin 2-1.
“Crystal and Sofia did a great job hustling with a lot of talk and executed their serves,” Roberts said.
Roberts said the team rose to the occasion and was able to adjust to their new partners but could benefit from utilizing more hustle and support techniques.
“Everyone battled in the long run, but playing a good team will get us ready for the next game,” Roberts said.
Orange Coast coach Chuck Cutenese observed the match between Alexandra Selivanov and Paige Cutwright against Athina Sarreas and Bridget Dorr.
“It looked like an evenly matched team as there were quite a few lead changes and El Camino had the lead in the second set, but Paige and Alexandra had a strong finish,” Cutenese said.
Coming off of a fresh 5-0 record for the season, Cutenese said that he does not want the Pirates to focus on the streak and instead focus on improving their defensive positioning, serving and setting.
“I don’t want them to talk about the win streak, just learn from our match against El Camino,” Cutenese said.
The next Warriors beach volleyball match was set to take place on Friday, Feb. 24 against the Golden West College Rustlers, however, the game is currently postponed due to rainy weather forecasts.
