Warriors beach volleyball team scores back-to-back wins to finish regular season

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El Camino College’s Makeala Wilson and Nofo Selu work together during their match against College of the Desert’s Valerie Rojo and Ashley Amidei. Selu and Wilson defeated Rojo and Amidei 2-0. (Kai Martinez | The Union)

El Camino College’s beach volleyball team utilized consistent offensive and defensive tactics against both College of the Desert and Long Beach to score a flawless 5-0 victory and a closely contested 3-2 win, respectively.

For the first match against the College of the Desert Roadrunners, Warriors’ beach volleyball sophomore Ginia Goods established a sizable lead early on with her serving.

Goods also committed a significant number of errors, which she intends to improve before the next conference match.

“Since it was hot today, we had to play through it and remain focused, I learned more from this game about how to limit my faults through specific plays and not let outside circumstances affect how I play,” Goods said.

Goods and her pairs partner Sophia Ortiz defeated Jacqueline Leon and Liana Whitley 2-0 (21-14, 21-15).

Sophomore player Athina Sarreas had a strong start to her doubles set with partner Bianca Perez, leading to a strong 8-2 victory against the Roadrunners’ Kiersten Sinzun-Young and Denise Lupian.

While discussing her performance against Young and Lupian, Sarreas said it was the teamwork displayed by her and Perez is what led to their victory.

“I play very well in the beginning, middle and end of every match with my teammate Bianca Perez, especially in the second set of today’s match when we took advantage of option balls to discuss what was open in our match and get a first ball kill on the majority of the balls we served,” Sarreas said.

The Warriors’ coach LeValley Pattison advised her players to concentrate on their talents throughout the matches and what to work on before facing the following opponents.

“In order to put our best effort forward as the season nears its apex, we’ve been focusing on increasing scoring possibilities during all court plays,” Pattison said.

The Roadrunners’ coach Detlev Rothe frequently switched up the pairings during the match, which had a favorable effect. The fresh coupling of the players was supposed to provide new energy to the matchups.

“I’m observing how much faster the players are connecting and cooperating on the new pairs that I set in today’s game, but my goals are to put in a lot of effort in the second half,” Rothe said.

Lupian credited Sinzun-Young for the teamwork she displayed throughout their set.

“Kiersten and I were playing together for the first time, and during the game, she encouraged me when I made excellent plays and even when I didn’t, she still helped me feel confident in myself,” Lupian said.

El Camino College's Francheska Aguilar fights for the ball during a match against College of the Desert's Joselyn Nunez and Paige Perez. Paired with Emily Uhrinak, Aguilar defeated Perez and Nunez in two sets (21-9, 21-9). (Kai Martinez | The Union)
El Camino College’s Francheska Aguilar fights for the ball during a match against Long Beach City College’s Destynie Viliamu and Celestial Rupati.(Kai Martinez | The Union)

Later in the afternoon, the El Camino College Warriors played in a closely contested match against the Long Beach City Vikings, defeating them 3-2.

The best play of the match came from Ortiz and Leon’s win over the Vikings pair of Carmelina Infante and Brandi Ramirez 2-0 (21-14, 21-9) during the penultimate set.

The El Camino College Warriors are set to begin the South Coast Conference Pairs Tournament at Long Beach City College on Friday, April 28.

Editor’s Note:

  • Changed featured photo on Monday, April 24 at 12:20 p.m.