ELAC defeats Harbor 3-0

WILMINGTON, CA — The East Los Angeles College volleyball team defeated Los Angeles Harbor College in three sets, 25-15, 25-11, 25-10, in a South Coast Conference match-up.

ELAC, 7-8 overall and 2-2 in the SCC, hosts Cerritos College (10-7, 3-1) Friday, Oct. 16 at 6 p.m. in the South Gym with third place in the SCC on the line.

In other SCC action today, Cerritos edged Pasadena City College (7-4, 2-1) in three sets with a 25-20, 25-20, 25-18 win.

Also, the state’s No. 6-ranked El Camino College (13-2, 3-0) got a 3-0 win against Long Beach City College (3-11, 1-3) and Mt. San Antonio College won 3-0 against winless Los Angeles Trade Tech College (0-8, 0-4).

In action last week, ELAC rallied to defeat Long Beach 3-1 after losing the first set in a 21-25, 25-19, 25-21, 25-23 win.

“It was a very good win for us (against) Long Beach,” said ELAC Coach Elliott Walker. “The kids had returned last season’s loss by passing, setting and executing well strategically.”

Long Beach edged ELAC 3-2 in last season’s the final game, to finish in fourth place in the 2014 standings. ELAC finished in fifth place.

In the 3-1 win, ELAC had 53 kills to the Vikings’ 46, but it was ELAC’s timing and teamwork that was the difference. In the final 25-23 set win for ELAC, Long Beach had twice as many errors, while ELAC had more kills (12).

Sophomore outside hitter Brenna Trujillo (Montebello High School) led the Husky pack attack with 23 kills, 22 digs and two service aces. Teammate sophomore outside hitter Alexis Salazar (Mark Keppel) followed with 12 kills, 16 digs and one service ace.

Teammate sophomore Yekaterina Makarova (Almaty, Kazakhstan Military of Sport) added eight kills, sophomore Ashley Winet (L.A. Wilson) had seven kills, nine digs and one service ace, freshman Vanessa Peralta (L.A. Sacred Heart) added 21 digs for ELAC and two serving aces.

Freshman defensive specialist Destanee Cortes (Schurr) and sophomore defensive setter Jessica Nunez (Bell) had 15 and 12 digs, respectively. Nunez had two serving aces.

ELAC lost to conference leading Mt. SAC (9-3, 4-0), 3-0: 25-15, 25-14, 25-23 on Oct. 9.

“We settled down in the third set and played smarter with line-up changes and transitioned well with skill, technique and our routines,” said Walker.

ELAC had 23 kills including 20 from Trujillo (11), Salazar (five) and Makarova (four).

ELAC had a tough time with Mt. SAC at the net and with the Mounties’ serving. The Mounties had 11 serving aces. Mt SAC had 43 kills with most of them coming from their outside hitters.

Down 18-22 in the third set, ELAC had a 4-2 rally to pull within two points, 22-24. Makarova brought the house down when she blocked a Mt. SAC kill attempt at the net to bring the Huskies within a point, 23-24. Mt. SAC closed out for the set and match.

‘We expected ELAC to be stronger and they are every year,” said Mt. SAC Coach Maria Dennis. “They put together a good game with good hitters against us, but our offense outplayed them.”

story submitted by Tadzio Garcia