Cerritos College Beach Volleyball lose their second consecutive conference game after suffering a sweep defeat from the Long Beach City College Vikings.
This is the Falcon’s second time losing to the Vikings in a sweep fashion this season and now have lost four of their last five games.
“Our conference is tough, there’s not one match where we’re like, ‘we got this one’, so if we want to win the South Coast Conference we have to bring it every day, and not for 10 to 15 points, for all 21”, Head coach Kari Hemmerling said.
The Falcons were able to put up a fight in the first set with the two duos of Jenni Solano and Emily Gutierrez, and Judit Navarro and Kira Magdaleno being able to earn a set win over the Vikings.
But the Vikings responded in the first set handing the Falcons three losses with two of them ending with the same score of 21-17.
Set 2 the Vikings dominated with all five of their pairs winning to give them the overall victory on the day.
After set 2 the Vikings had already taken a 3-0 lead giving the Falcons no chance to come out with the win but a chance to avoid a sweep.
Solano and Gutierrez along with Magdaleno and Navarro all went to the final set against the Vikings.
The Vikings would be too much for Magdaleno and Navarro taking them down 15-5 in the final set now giving them a 4-0 lead.
Solano and Gutierrez found themselves in a competitive matchup with the score tied at 9-9.
But the Vikings would go on to outscore the Falcons 6-2 in the final stages of this set giving them a dominant sweep win.
“One thing we need to improve on is changing our game strategy, we had a strategy that worked on the first set but I think after that they figured us out, and we could’ve kept it cleaner in the second set so we didn’t have to worry about a third one but as a team overall we just need to change it up, have a new game strategy, and being comfortable and trying different things”, Solano said.
March has been a rough month for the Falcons currently sitting at a 7-8 record on the season and a 1-4 conference record with only 5 games left there isn’t much time to improve.
“I see them every day in practice so it’s like ‘Are we getting better’? But my dad came to our practice on Wednesday and said ‘You guys have gotten so much better’ I’m like ‘Really’? So we’re getting better but so is everyone else so it’s just staying patient and understanding it’s a process,” Hemmerling said.
The Falcon’s next game will be hosted at Mt. Sac where they will have a double-header when they take on Rio Rondo and the Mounties.
