Kathleen Ocampo
With only one win and three consecutive losses, the men’s volleyball team set out to defeat El Camino College on March 19, but later on lost the game, 3-1.
“It wasn’t a bad loss,” said Steven Umemeto, one of Pierce College’s team captains.
However, it made their standing 1-4 halfway through the Western State Conference.
The teams tied scores up for most of the set. The Brahmas called for their second time out near the end of the game as El Camino led, 29-27. But Pierce gave El Camino the game as they served into the net.
“They didn’t even have to work for it. It’s like free tacos,” said Eddie Stanislawski, Brahmas head coach.
Not in the mood to give more freebies, Brahmas did their best to win the second set. Following no pattern, both teams continued to score, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats with what seemed like some of the longest rallies of the game, including one that tied both teams at 23.
Brahmas neared victory and a frustrated Warriors head coach called a time out. El Camino matched them score-for-score, but Pierce triumphed, 30-26.
Spiked up with energy amid the cheers of the Brahmas, Warriors took an early lead in the third set. They had six-point leads during the game and the Brahmas would call for at time out, returning to score two twice but leaving the Warriors to score again.
In a previous game, there was an argument about whether the ball was still in playable area when it hit the metal hangings on the ceiling.
The same thing happened twice during this game – once in the first set and again in the second – with no drama.
However, the game was interrupted when the referee gave a point to the Warriors that Stanislawski argued, resulting in a yellow card for him. The Warriors eventually prevailed, 30-22.
Going into the fourth, Brahmas lost confidence in the thought that they were going to win, according to Justin Corio, Brahmas libero.
Although striving not to show it on court, five service errors, coupled with nine other errors, were evidence enough. They ended up losing a close call, 30-28.
“The morale went down after the first game. We just never really got it back up,” Corio said.
The team is also having trouble adjusting to Umemoto, who replaced Sia Irillian, the original starting setter who quit after the March 12 game against Moorpark College. Stanislawski is sure the team is rallying behind Umemoto as he does a great job, but admitted a week’s training after six to eight months of being used to Irillian’s style of setting wasn’t enough.
They had a different starting lineup to reward those who were hard working.
“Other guys kind of take advantage of the fact that they’re our guaranteed starter,” Stanislawski said. “So we kind of shook things up, made people work harder this week and I thought it almost paid off.”
“We thought we had a lot of intensity in the third game, playing really well, and then a couple of bonehead errors here and there and the heads started dropping.”
Even so, Ryan Arthur, middle hitter, said he would rather lose that way than they did the last three games.
“I think they’re a young team and it shows on the court a lot,” said Kyle Luongo, former Pierce team captain. “But they still have half of the conference to turn around.”
With teamwork in progress, what else does the men’s volleyball team need for their next game?
“A win, ” Richard Barraza Jr., the Brahma’s other team captain, said. “That’s what we need next, a win.”