Rio Hondo Women’s Volleyball team hope to continue its winning streak

Rio Hondo’s Women’s Volleyball team seems to have what it takes to make it to the Foothill Conference finals as they posted wins in their last four games upping their record to 6-7, but more importantly, 3-0 in the conference.

The Lady Roadrunners defeated a tough Moorpark team in five sets as its final tuneup before entering the conference and plowed through Chaffey, Cerro Cosso, and Victor Valley colleges with relative ease.

The Lady Roadrunners first conference home game was against Chaffey College in which they defeated Chaffey in a remarkably close three games with the final scores being: 25-22, 25-23, 25-22.

Both teams had many long rallies and close scoring throughout, however the Lady Roadrunners persevered for the victory.

This first conference game set the tone for the following matches against Victor Valley and Cerro Cosso.

Each volleyball match is played best out of five, winner takes all; and the Lady Roadrunners have beat three consecutive teams without having to go all five rounds.

Rio’s second game was away in Victorville at Victor Valley’s home turf; despite not having the home court advantage Rio was able to beat the team in three matches, the final scores were: 25-21, 25-17, 25-12.

The next game was quick against Cerro Cosso College as the Lady Roadrunners were victorious again in only three rounds, with the final scores being: 25-19, 25-11, 25-16.

This years team are playing well together and the victories are proving promising for the upcoming conference finals.

Setters Haley Brownwood and Gabrielle Cruz have been doing an excellent job at keeping up the quickness of plays getting the ball to hitters.

Tanya Metchkoff is the libero, otherwise known as the defensive specialist, has been doing a great job keeping the plays going; hustling to everything, not letting the ball fall to the floor at pivotal moments in the game, and making successful plays possible.

The Lady Roadrunners are covering on defense and it is giving the team great momentum.

Up at the net on offense are hitters Kassandra Casas, Romy Ramos, and Maribel Baca.

They have been getting the set up they need to put points on the board and are leading in offensive kill shots on the team.

Middle blockers Joleen Luque and Brenda Alvarado have been making a strong presence at the net, utilizing their height and skill to shut down the other teams attempts at a kill play giving their team a chance to set up and execute plays.

Overall as a team the women are stepping it up and playing competitively with high caliber teams.

Head Coach Teddy Esko says that the women are working on eliminating errors and are doing well as far as showing great versatility on the court as well as “training hard, and showing a great team effort.”

The Lady Roadrunners next matchup will be against College of the Desert, who are tied with Rio in the conference with a 3-0 record.

Considering that Desert is the only team in the conference with the same record as Rio Hondo, it is sure to be an exciting game.

Following their matchup against College of the Desert, Rio will once again play Chaffey College.

The game will be away on Chaffey’s campus on Oct. 28.

The Roadrunners’ next home game will be Nov. 4 in the gym at 5:30 pm against Victor Valley College.

This will be the second to last home game before conference finals which begin in late November.