The Rio Hondo Women’s Beach Volleyball team qualified for the Western State Conference playoffs in their first season and will be held on April 27 at El Camino College at 1:00 p.m.

The Lady Roadrunners last faced Ventura at Grossmout on April 22 and went on to lose the match 5-0, and would then lose the second 5-0 to Grossmont.

Ventura won four of the five matches in straight sets and won the final match in three sets over Rio Hondo, giving the Pirates a win in the second game after losing their prior match to Grossmont.

Both Grossmont and Ventura got a win a piece that afternoon as Rio Hondo failed to win either of their two matches that day. Ventura have now completed their regular season and only dropped two matches in the Western State Conference and have an overall record of 9-4.

Ventura will return to the sand on April 29 for the Western State Conference championships, but will first participate in the WSC individual play-in tournament on April 27.

Rio Hondo currently have a conference record of 2-5 and have a winning percentage of 0.286. The Lady Roadrunners have a total of 15 games played with an overall record of 2-13.

Due to the fact that Rio Hondo does not currently have a sand volleyball court, all of the Lady Roadrunners matches this season were away from home forcing them to travel as far as San Diego.

The Lady Roadrunners also had to adjust to the sand game on their own, and practiced off-campus at Liberty City Park in Cerritos to get up to speed with the rest of the schools who have already been participating in beach volleyball.

This was Rio Hondo’s first season participating in Beach Volleyball, as it is the newest emerging women’s sport at the collegiate level and CCCAA schools started trailing the sport since the Spring of 2014.

With the help of Coach Teddi Esko, a club program was allowed that Spring as well as the following, which were both a success. Thus, allowing for the development of the program as an intercollegiate one.

Most of the Rio Hondo Beach Volleyball players mainly played indoor volleyball, so the team has had to do a lot of transitioning into the sand aspect of the game. It is a totally different way of playing the sport, and there is even differences in the rules as well.

Rio Hondo have spent the entire season traveling on the road to different schools to face their opponents, and again had to hit the road so that they could actually practice on their sand skills as well.

The dedication of these athletes has been phenomal, and their hard work has definitely gone noticed. Beach Volleyball is now an official sport at Rio Hondo, and this season has been a succesful one.

The Beach Volleyball program here will only continue to grow as each season passes by, and with Head Coach Esko running the show, there is no doubt she will take our Lady Roadrunners to the next level.

After a great first season, congratulations to Rio Hondo’s Women’s Beach Volleyball team who qualified for the Western State Conference playoffs that will be held on April 27 at El Camino College at 1:00 p.m.