The Cerritos College Falcons won their matchup against their undefeated conference rivals, the Long Beach City Vikings on Oct. 16.
Cerritos won the match 3-1 which is their first time being taken to the fourth set in a bit over a month.
The bleachers were packed by the time the match started with both fans for Cerritos and Long Beach City.
“Huge having baseball here and a couple other fans, it just makes it really fun,” Head Coach of the Falcons Kari Hemmerling said.
This was a very high-energy game from the crowd making noise for both sides to the back-and-forth scoring.
The first three sets of the match were very close with Cerritos taking the first set 26-24, Long Beach City taking the second set 23-25 and Cerritos winning the third 25-21.
“It’s a very, very good team for a reason,” Hemmerling said about Long Beach City College, “They haven’t lost a match all year for a reason it’s because they’re relentless.”
Setter/Right Side Sydney May was the first to get a point on the board and was leading the Falcons in kills with 17 and points with 19.5.
May was notably doing well off the serve with every opportunity she had.
“We definitely worked on our serve pass game, because definitely that’s the most important part of us winning,” May said.
Outside hitter, Tainea Allen, for Long Beach City was a big challenge for Cerritos at the end of the first set as she scored three points in a row to have the set tied at 24-24 forcing Cerritos to have to win by two.
After a service error by Allen, Outside Hitter for the Falcons, Jasmine Soto-Castro, ended the set on a service ace.
“When I started, my adrenaline was going, so my serves were going outside the court,” Soto-Castro said about her serves.
She added that she started to put the ball inside the court and started to trust the defense so a play could be made.
The second set ended similarly to the first but this time Cerritos would have back-to-back errors with Allen finishing the set with a kill.
Outside Hitter/Middle Blocker for the Falcons, Monserrat Rodriguez scored the first two points in the third set.
“I think it’s just really knowing that I put all my effort during practice,” Rodriquez said about her performance this match.
Rodriquez scored the second-highest points on the Falcons with 13.
The third set ended in an attack error by the Vikings with the Falcons taking the momentum.
Cerritos would start the fourth set scoring five unanswered points.
The Falcons were looking to cruise their way to a victory with the score being 24-16 but the Vikings would score four unanswered points making the score 24-20.
“No lead is comfortable,” said Hemmerling, “you cannot get too comfortable with anything.”
May would end it though by getting the final kill ending the set 25-20 and the match 3-1.
May expressed the difference between the teams in this game, “We definitely embraced the underdog mentality because, they definitely were not expecting to lose that game, but we came in expecting to win.”
Rodriquez believes they still haven’t played their best volleyball with May adding they play their best when they play simple and clean.
The Falcons improve to 11-2 with a 3-0 conference record with another conference match this Friday.
May stated, that the team has to keep the same intensity they had this match and to not underestimate the team in their next match.
The Falcons will host LA Habor on Oct. 18.
