Warriors Score Thrilling Win over Long Beach for Third Straight Victory

TORRANCE, Calif. --- El Camino College scored a big South Coast Conference victory with a 4-1 decision over Long Beach on Friday morning at the ECC Sand Courts.

The Warriors recorded their third straight win in dramatic fashion as ECC won the final three contests on Friday to beat the Vikings.

All three of the final matches went the distance with the match-clinching point coming by the slimmest of margins.

Tate Mercer and Aireon Scott gave ECC the early 1-0 lead, sweeping their match on court two 21-10, 21-16. But that lead was short lived as Zariah Honeycutt and Zoe Lekan dropped their game on court three to the duo of Ryannah Gagau and Alexandra Rosquin; 21-14, 21-14.

Fittingly, the rest of the match became a best-of-three with the No. 1, 3, and 5 courts all requiring third sets to be decided.

The first domino fell on court one as Scheala Nielsen and Erica Griffiths scored a 21-16, 12-21, 15-10 win to give ECC the 2-1 advantage.

On court five, Perla Lopez and Payton Garrison were in a tight battle with Alanna Jones and Maggie Acevedo. The Warriors were up 21-20 in the second set but lost the last three points to send the game into a third set. In the final frame, the Warriors finished the job as Garrison smashed the match-clinching kill along the left sideline for a 15-13 win in the set.

On court four, Madelyn Hancock and Alyssa Estrada trailed 7-1 at one point but stormed all the way back to tie things up at 10-10. The Warriors duo would ride the momentum to a 14-11 lead and, after LBCC fought off two match points, Estrada scored the final kill with a touch to toward the back tape that the Vikings could not dig out.

With the win, the Warriors pulled their SCC record to an even 3-3 and they will close out the season on Friday, April 11 against Cerritos and College of the Desert at Rosie's Dog Beach in Long Beach, Calif.