Pierce Swept From State Playoffs

The finely tuned defensive machine that carried the Pierce College women’s volleyball team to its first state playoff berth came to a clanking, grinding, shuddering halt Tuesday night in a second-round, three-game loss at El Camino College.

The end took barely an hour as El Camino rolled to a 15-12, 15-5, 15-5 win.

Frustratingly for Pierce (18-3), it was not only beaten soundly but also beaten at its own game.

“They just played smarter than us,” Pierce outside hitter Anna Suarez said. “We just didn’t pull together at all. Nothing worked.”

The undersized Pierce players earned their postseason berth with a combination of clever offense and surprising defense, but, suddenly, against El Camino, passes were going awry, serves were being mis-hit and blocks were crumbling.

“I felt we probably played our worst match that we’ve played all year,” Pierce Coach Steve Gazzaniga said. “We made probably as many unforced errors as we have in any game we’ve played.”

As it often does, sixth-seeded Pierce fell behind in the first game, 7-3, but battled back to an 8-7 lead.

Third-seeded El Camino (14-1) answered with consecutive bursts of three and two points, however, to stymie what proved to be Pierce’s only threat.

Despite holding a distinct height advantage, El Camino initially eschewed a power game and caught Pierce off balance with an off-speed attack.

“I was surprised,” said Suarez, who led Pierce with 10 kills.

El Camino recorded 17 aces.

Pierce quickly fell behind, 8-3, in the second game. Then, after an exchange of sideouts, El Camino reeled off six consecutive points on Cindee Rutherford’s service.

Pierce scored the first point of the third game before being walled in by a progressively more dominant El Camino block.

Cathy Alofaituli (5-foot-11) and Lisa Wenker (6-0) each recorded seven stuff blocks, and Wenker led El Camino with nine kills and five aces.

Alissa Levisohn supported Suarez with seven kills, but El Camino held Andrea Banducci, the Western State Conference leader in hitting percentage, to four kills.

El Camino moves into the final eight and the double-elimination stage of the state tournament.