Cerritos volleyball has had a bit of a whirlwind this past week, losing to the state champion El Camino College, beating East LA in just about an hour, sweeping LA Harbor and then losing to Pasadena City College on Friday night to have a 4-2 record in conference play.
The Falcons will travel to Mt. San Antonio College Wednesday evening, looking to improve their play and conference record.
Recently, Cerritos volleyball has struggled in the passing and serving game and that has cost it victories.
In the Pasadena game, the Falcons started out strong as usual but costly hitting errors and passing mistakes kept them from winning matches.
Cerritos stayed close with the Lancers in every match but Pasadena capitalized when mistakes were made by the Falcons.
Those kind of errors have been mentioned after previous games while conversing with Sophomore Kristen Trillo and other players but those issues have yet to be corrected.
Cerritos recorded 27 hitting errors and freshman Chenelle Puou got 10 out of her 13 errors in the second match.
She also tallied 12 kills however, nine of those kills were only done in the first match.
After the loss to El Camino last week, the Falcons played East LA very aggresively and made few errors, and freshman Sarah Rodriguez made note that the serving and defense were key in that victory.
Altough the defense held up against PCC, Cerritos was unable to capitlaize on the offensive end and that is something Rodriguez and the rest of the team realize they need to work on.
A major concern Ortega has delt with in the previous season may come back to haunt her and that concern is her teams ability to play strong and stay disciplined in later phases of matches.
In the El Camino game, the Falcons had an 11-5 lead in the second match after playing a bit sluggish in the first.
The mistakes that seem minor at the time turn into opportunities for experienced teams to take advantage of.
Cerritos battled and managed to stay close against El Camino just like the Falcons did against PCC but seems to fold when tested.
The Falcons will face another test against Mt. San Antonio and Ortega expects her team to learn from the loses as well as the mistakes made in victory.
The offense is always good to be aggressive but mental errors are just as vital.
