For the first time since 1994, the Cerritos College Falcons volleyball team are headed to the state championship tournament after a victory against the San Bernardino Valley Wolverines, where they once again executed on blocks.
Cerritos College volleyball head coach, Kari Hemmerling, shared that she is “Absolutely ecstatic,” about this win due to Cerritos College volleyball not being in the state tournament for 30 years.
“It’s just cool because these groups don’t come around all the time,” Hemmerling stated.
Hemmerling reflected on this year’s experience with this team, “It’s just a really fun experience with this group because it’s been such a mix.”
She continued, “We had a bunch of transfers, from Long Beach, Pasadena, Rio Hondo, Santa Cruz and then the kids that have been here and for some reason, it just worked.”
“It’s been super fun and getting an opportunity to go play some more ball is all we wanted…,” Hemmerling finished.
The Falcons won the match 3-0 and did not allow the Wolverines to score 20 points in any of the three sets due to their blocking ability as they had a team total of two solo blocks and six block assists.
Cerritos College also had no blocking errors during this match which also attributed to not allowing San Bernardino Valley to score 20 points.
“I feel really good that we’re improving our blocks and keeping the rallies going and helping our defense,” Outside hitter for the Falcons, Jasmine Soto-Castro, said.
Soto-Castro continued, “Once the block is there, it helps our defense go smooth and it makes the game go faster for us.”
“When you can just shut offensive players down…it just kind of gets in their head a little bit mentally,” Hemmerling said.
She continued, “Blocking is not our strong suit so when we get a couple of good touches and just frustrate them we were able to be in charge and we got to control the game.”
Setter and right-side hitter, Sydney May, commented on how the team can keep up with these blocking performances, “Focusing on it in practice and making sure that we’re in the right spot and knowing the tendencies of the hitters we’re blocking and just staying discipline.”
May had an outstanding performance this game as she led the match with 19 total points and two block assists.
She stated that she was glad about her performance but credited the team.
“We all have been firing on all cylinders and playing well, I couldn’t do it without everyone else,” she said.
Falcons players May and Soto-Castro shared they will continue to work hard in practice, stay focused, keep communicating and keep up their serve and pass game to win the state tournament.
“We got to get three more wins and it’s just one at a time always,” Hemmerling expressed.
“It’s just not even just one win, It’s just one point, one pass, one set, one swing because if you do those things right, it’s going to get you the outcome you want,” she stated.
The Falcons will start the state tournament on Friday, Dec. 6, at 10 am. against Fresno City at Mt. San Antonio.
