The Pierce College men’s volleyball team took their three game winning streak, and 8-2 record on the road to El Camino College (4-5) on Friday night looking for an easy win.
Pierce got overwhelmed by the way El Camino College came out to start the game with both their play and high emotions.
“I have a lot of emotional ties to Pierce College,” said El Camino College Head Coach Dick Blount. “My mom died a couple years back last time we played them.”
The Brahmas came out sluggish and not really interested to start off the game.
“We came out lackadaisical and really slow, we really weren’t prepared mentally,” said freshman AK Gharwal.
Pierce was in a big whole to start off the first set, down 14-5, eventually losing the first set, 25-17.
“This is a tough place to play, the depth perception with this funky arch work makes it hard to track the ball,” said Pierce Head Coach Eddie Stanislawski.
The start of the second set was where Pierce seemed to realize that El Camino was not going to be a walk in the park.
It was a tight second set, till Pierce pulled away, winning the set 25-23. The final kill of the second set sent Hunter Hovland of El Camino walking back to his bench cursing.
“We don’t stop playing hard until the whistle blows,” said Gharwal.
The third set went to El Camino 25-17; were again Pierce just did not look like the team we are accustomed to seeing.
Pierce finally got their swagger back in the fourth set, were they showed more emotion than they had throughout the game.
“We don’t need to worry about what they’re doing if were on fire,” said Stanislawski.
The fourth set was a tight contest all the way through, until Jon Souisa had the winning kill to give them the set 25-23, forcing a fifth and final set.
“We just had to stay focused and keep playing volleyball,” said Souisa.
The fifth set was like a game of tug of war, where neither team gave an inch to the other, both wanted the win.
Back and forth was how the fifth set played out, were it seemed who ever had the last serve was going to win the match.
El Camino won the fifth set 15-13, and stormed the court with such excitement knowing that this was a huge game for them and their coach.
“We were playing everyone tough, we just never got the win, but tonight we finally got that win,” said Blount.
Hayk Sargsyan led the team with 17 kills, and Jon Souisa added in 12 kills.
“We fought hard, but we let our emotions get the better of us with some of the ref’s calls,” said Stanislawski.
Pierce College next game will be on the road at Long Beach College on Friday, March 25 at 6 p.m.
Pierce College’s Christian Nava digs a serve from El Camino College March 18, 2011. El Camino took win in the fifth set.
