The Brahmas win the first round of regionals on Tuesday, Nov. 22 against Mt. San Antonio College.
Pierce knocked out the Mt. San Antonio Lil’ Joe Mounties 3-1 with the final set 25-20.
“It feels amazing. I think we just need to have the mindset of taking one game at a time,” libero Julia Izquierdo said.
The first two rounds of the match were close, neither team getting more than three points at a time over the other team.
“It probably shouldn’t have been that close, but we need to grind it out either way. They came to play, so did we. The best team wins,“ Izquierdo said.
Mt. San Antonio scored much higher than their season ranking lead one to believe, coach Nabil Mardini said.
“I knew Mt. San was not a 15 rank team. I knew that they were better. You can tell they were really battling with us. It’s a good team,” Mardini said. “I’m glad we actually played a good team, because it’s going to make us ready for the second round.”
This was one of the few games that challenged the Brahmas this season, opposite hitter Megan Weaver said.
“We work so hard. We work harder than any other team out there, so we deserve this. I’m just excited for what’s to come. They’re a good team. We haven’t really played any super challenging teams this whole season. We’ve just been playing each other, so that was our main competition,” Weaver said. “Playing them was kind of a little wake up call, so that explains why it was so neck and neck, but we pulled through.”
This game marks the 27th victory for the Brahmas this season, with only three losses thus far.
Round 2 of regionals is on Saturday, Nov. 26 against Golden West College.
The team is ecstatic to progress through regionals and are sure they will make it to the state championships.
“I know everybody else is excited about it because we are on our way back to the state championships. It just feels good to finally play a team that’s a little bit of a competition, and it feels good to beat them,” Opposite hitter Whitley Doss said. “This is what we play for. This is what we came for. It’s exciting to know this is what we’re all here for, and we’re almost there.”
