Corsairs still winless in conference

The Santa Monica College Men's Volleyball dropped another match last Friday against El Camino College bringing their in conference record to 0-5 on the season. Both El Camino and SMC came out of the gates swinging going back and forth all evening playing three exciting games.

Each of the three sets ended in very close scores, but in the end the El Camino Warrior's came away with all three victories.

In the first set, the Corsairs played well and jumped out to a 15-7 lead against the Warriors. But as the game progressed El Camino slowly began to turn the tables. Playing tough defense and precise offense the Warriors came storming back to take the lead.

The Corsairs final attempts to regain the lead in the closing moments fell short as El Camino took the game 25-18. "I wouldn't say that we were great or that they (Corsairs) played poorly," said El Camino head coach Dick Blount. "I would say that we just got a little lucky, and you need to have a little luck as you go through the conference."

In the second game the Corsairs once again looked poised to take the victory as they took an early 5-0 lead.  However, the Warriors rallied back with a 9-0 run and stout defense to take a 9-5 lead.  Not to be out done, the Corsairs soon found a way to break through to build up a 12-17 lead.

I the end, the Warriors persistence paid off as they rallied back to win the second game 23-25 to take a 2-0 match lead.

In what turned out to be the third and final set of the night both teams were out for blood.  The Warriors took an early 2-0 lead but seemed to fizzle as          SMC stuck around and went on a 9-0 run of their own to go up 9-2 early. However the Warrior's slowly gained momentum and answered back with 8 straight points taking a one-point lead 10-9.

After another momentum shift SMC re-took the lead 14-10 and looked as if they might grab a win until the Warriors caught on fire with three runs of 4-1, 5-0 and 4-0.

The game continued to move back and forth as the two teams traded blows for most of the third game until the Corsairs were on top 21-20.

As the crowd grew anxious and nervous, the Corsairs had a chance to put the game away but then in an instant, the chance of winning the game slipped from their hands, as the Warrior's capitalized on two Corsair faults and took the lead 22-21.

After the Warriors took the lead they didn't look back as they scored on three consecutive plays to end the game and the match in three straight sets.

"This game could have gone either way," said coach Blount, "both teams played hard. He added, "I respect them deeply. I've known coach Mayer for a while now, he's a great competitor and his team has that same fire."

The Corsair's next game will be on Sat, Mar 26 at Long Beach City at 6pm.