Warriors Season Comes To an End Against American River

FAIRFIELD, Calif. – No. 5 El Camino College had its season come to an end Friday afternoon with a 3-1 (11-25, 25-22, 25-22, 25-20) loss to American River in the quarterfinals of the California Community College Athletic Association Women's Volleyball State Championships.

The Warriors (23-4) came out strong but struggled in the last three sets as the Beavers (23-7) offense took over. In the final three sets, the Warriors committed three more attacking errors than the Beavers and American River recorded 48 kills in the last three frames while the Warriors managed 35. After attacking at a .375 clip in the first set, the Warriors were outhit in each of the final three sets, never cracking above .200 in any of them.

Phina Leilua capped off her amazing career at ECC with another double-double as she recorded 18 kills and 10 digs. But the Beavers did a solid job on defending the Warriors top player as she tied her season high with 10 attacking errors on the day. No other Warriors player recorded double figures offensively.

For the Beavers, Lily Johnson led the way with 15 kills and a .286 attacking percentage while Andreia Keane added 12 kills. As a team, the Beavers also did a solid job at the net with 13 blocks, led by Savanah Smith with five.

The Warriors jumped all over the Beavers to start the match, attacking at a .375 clip (14-2-32) while the Beavers had more errors (10) than kills (6) in the frame. The Warriors recorded multiple scoring runs of five or more consecutive points en route to an easy win in the opening set.

But the Beavers countered immediately, going on a 9-0 run to start the second set. The Beavers recorded four kills and a service ace during the run while four attacking errors by ECC also helped American River build a big lead.

The Warriors would not pack it in, however, coming all the way back to actually take an 18-17 lead in the set. The Beavers countered with four straight points to retake the lead and would pull out the set to tie things up.

In the third, the Warriors led by as many as six points at 14-8. But the Beavers persisted and used a 6-0 run to turn an 18-15 deficit into a 21-18 lead. The Warriors could never chip all the way back in the set and fell 25-22 to trail by a set.

In the fourth set, the Beavers hammered down 17 kills as a team and outhit ECC .229 to .146 to put the match away and advance to the semifinals while the Warriors season came to an end.