The Cerritos College Falcons volleyball team defeated Grossmont College on Nov. 26, 2024, in the second round of the Southern California Regional Playoffs as they outperformed with blocks.
The key to this Falcons victory was to prevent Grossmonts’ hitters from getting hot.
They did this by getting a good amount of blocks with eight total block assists in this match.
“We got a couple of blocks, which made the hitters have to think about what to do next. It wasn’t just an easy gimme, so we made them change the way they play,” head coach for the Falcons, Kari Hemmerling, said.
Hemmerling shared that the team had been working on blocks in practice after their loss to Long Beach City College.
“When we lost a Long Beach, they kind of exposed us, blocking-wise and that’s the first thing I said to our team,” she said.
Setter/right-side hitter, Sydney May, was a big contributor to the blocks in this game, as she had four total block assists which was the highest of any player in the match.
“We did a good job keeping the pressure on them and keeping them out of system,” May said, “They’re a good team when they’re in system, but we definitely prevented them from getting hot.”
May wasn’t just the match leader in block assist, but in total points with 17 and kills with 13.
Grossmont wasn’t cold the whole match, as in the second set they started to get into a rhythm with an early lead of 5 – 1 which had Hemmerling call a timeout.
Hemmerling called this timeout to give her team “a second to breathe.”
“Grossmont was hot,” she said, “They were doing everything right and we weren’t done anything wrong, they were just in a groove.”
“Thank God we have timeouts so we can try to slow them down and then get the rhythm back on our side and luckily it worked,” Hemmerling finished.
May stated that during that timeout the team got a chance to get back to focusing on their fundamentals.
Cerritos won that set after being down early with Libero/Defensive Specialist, Priscilla Castillo, having shared how the team was able to come back and win that set.
“Our mindset is to just keep going. Don’t let one point affect us, keep pushing,” she stated.
The Falcons are now excited to be facing San Bernardino due to facing them earlier this season.
“I’m excited to play them again because we already played them this season, but I know they’re going to be a different team and I’m definitely ready to put in the work,” May said.
Hemmerling wants the team to build on what they did this game with the serve and pass game, “As long as we can win that serve and pass…like our chances.”
“Keep our heads up and keep working hard,” Castillo said to how they will continue to win.
Cerritos will meet San Bernardino on Nov. 30 at 6 p.m. to get a chance to head to the state round.
