Huskies Finally Make Home Debut After Weeks on the Road

by Cerwin D Haynes

It's atypical for East LA College women's volleyball team to spend the first four weeks of the season on the road. Young and road-weary, the freshmen-heavy Huskies have had a challenging go at adjusting to the speed of the college game. However, they finally made their 2025 home debut with conference play tonight, hosting the Long Beach City College Vikings. Head coach Dr. Elliott Walker looked forward to being back in the "E-rena", and at the same time wondered how his team would handle playing in front of family and friends.

The young Huskies (1-11) showed flashes of skillful play against a Vikings team that hasn't started the season as strong as their predecessors. However, they couldn't quite put together enough stretches of solid play to overcome some of their mistakes, ultimately falling in straight sets (25-20, 25-23, 25-20) to the visiting Vikings (4-8).

East LA held a brief lead in the first set 13-8, but played from behind for most of the match. To their credit, they made runs in the second and third sets, particularly in set #2: the home Green (well, Black actually) trailed 18-9 at one point before coming within a point in set #2 of tying Long Beach at 23-24. The third set saw the Huskies remain within striking distance of the Vikings, but they couldn't put together that one rally to overtake the lead and extend the match.

HUSKY BITS

• Freshman OH Isabelle Arrizon led ELAC with 9.0 points (seven kills and two service aces). 
• Izzy's sister, sophomore MH/OP Samantha Arrizon had five block assists. She was second on the team in points (8.5)

UP NEXT: 

The Pack will have a week off to ruminate and work out the kinks before they host Cerritos College next Friday at 4pm.