Twenty-five ties and lead changes later, the Lancer women’s volleyball team dropped three straight sets (25-17, 25-20, 29-27) against defending state champs El Camino College on Wednesday at the Hutto-Patterson Gym. After coming off an easy victory against L.A. Trade Tech on Friday, the Lancers (6-4) faced the state’s second-ranked team.
“If El Camino are the champions, we should be the co-champs,” said Assistant Head Coach Leslie Flores.
From the start it seemed as though the Lancers were poised to spring an upset, scoring three quick and easy points against a confused and unsuspecting Warriors squad.
Although El Camino (14-1) kept it close, the Lancers never trailed until El Camino blocked a tip, which gave the Warriors a 14-13 lead, setting the champs towards an offensive onslaught to victory.
In game two, the Lancers pushed out to a comfortable 8-3 lead before the Warriors steadily climbed their way to an 11-11 standstill. Afterward, both teams battled it out, exchanging point after point until a bad PCC block gave El Camino a 20-19 advantage, from where the Warriors never looked back.
“We had too many runs of mistakes,” added Flores. “It hurt us.”
“We played steady when we needed [to],” said El Camino Assistant Coach Terry Goring. “It was steady play all around.”
With the entire match on the line, PCC came out in the third game with motivated intensity. Numerous unforced PCC errors and vicious kills from El Camino’s Ashley Hardy, marred another early 7-3 Lancer lead, and the game became a dogfight for points again.
An El Camino error at the end of the set signaled a 25-23 victory, but a referee overturned the point since Galia Sotomayor, who was serving at the time, was the wrong server. The decision not only took away the set from PCC, but the entire match, as El Camino finished off the Lancers with a 29-27 victory.
“That cost us big,” said Flores.
“It worked out lucky for us,” added Goring.
Galia Sotomayor led the Lancers again with 10 kills, and Celina Espinola helped out with a team-high eight digs.
The loss drops the Lancers to 6-4 overall, and 1-1 in the South Coast Conference.
(left to right) Vanessa Amran, Jessica Damasco, Candice Price, Celina Espinola, Marissa Rangel and Kelly Mort celebrate a point against El Camino, who shutout the Lancers 3-0 (Jeremy Balan)
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