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Photo by
Juan Velez.
Sarah Naranjo ending a rally with a
kill |
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The Cerritos
College volleyball team has shown so far during the
season that they are a very improved team. But in
their South Coast Conference home match against El
Camino College on Wednesday night, the Falcons found
out why the Warriors are the two-time defending
stats champions. Cerritos (5-3, 2-1) did drop a
15-25, 26-24, 12-25, 20-25 decision, but fought El
Camino (13-0, 3-0) until the final point was scored.
On numerous occasions, the Falcons thought they had
scored a crucial point, but the digging skills of
the Warriors kept points alive. Cerritos will look
to expand on their strong performance when they host
East Los Angeles College at 6:00 p.m. on Friday.
After a slow start
to the first game, Cerritos came out strong in the
second game and opened up an 11-5 lead with six
different players recording at least one kill. After
a Warrior timeout, they scored four straight points
until sophomore
Sarah Naranjo (Santa Fe HS)
ended the rally with a kill. El Camino eventually
took a 16-15 lead and when the match was tied at 24
after three straight Warrior points, the Falcons
came to life and scored consecutive kills, with
sophomore Krystel
Luna (Downey HS/Pasadena City
College) and Naranjo finishing off the game.
Just like in the
first game, Cerritos came out flat in the third
game, as the Warriors turned to Yacine Meyer (21
kills) and Deja Dickerson (11 kills) for their
points. The Falcons didn't help their cause with
passing trouble and an inability to clear the ball
over the net at times. However, even when they were
down, they forced long rallies, but El Camino was
able to use their back row skills to keep the
Falcons from scoring crucial points.
In the fourth
game, it looked like the Warriors were going to put
it away quickly, as they held 16-6 and 20-11 leads.
But Cerritos made a match of it, led by Naranjo (17
kills). After receiving the ball after a
Cynthia Andrade (South
Gate HS) kill, freshman
Chanelle Puou (California HS)
served five straight points, which included a stuff
block by Naranjo and a long rally for a point, which
cut their deficit to 21-18. But El Camino continued
to set for Meyer and Dickerson, and they went on to
post a 25-20 win in the fourth game.
Puou, who started
the match slowly, finished with eight kills, while
Andrade added five kills. The offense was directed
by sophomore
Monique Gayton (La Serna HS),
who finished with 38 assists, with sophomore
Angelica Sievers
(St. Joseph HS) leading the back row with
15 digs.
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