The Lady Roadrunners volleyball squad and the Los Angeles Harbor Seahawks faced off in what ended up being a thrilling matchup on Friday night at Rio Hondo. It took the Rio Ladies all five sets to put out the Seahawks, 3-2.

Rio Hondo found themselves in a back-and-forth affair right from the beginning of Friday night’s matchup.  The Lady Roadrunners narrowly defeated the Seahawks in the first two sets; 26-24, then 25-22.

All seemed to be going well for the Lady Roadrunners, but they then quickly fell behind 3-0 in the third set and the LA Harbor Seahawks began piling on the points. Jade Mitchell, middle blocker for the Seahawks, was dominate in the third set, earning three straight kills, helping her team pull away.

LA Harbor went on to win the third and fourth sets rather easily, and by the same score of 25-16. After the game, Rio Hondo head coach Teddi Esko commented on those sets the Lady Roadrunners let get out of hand.

“We started making some unforced errors and I think we kind of psyched ourselves out,” explained Coach Esko. “We lost a little bit of confidence, which dropped our momentum. Honestly, I was looking at the girls and you can see that they were just overthinking everything. I told them to play loose, you got this, play confident, trust your ability. Game three and four doesn’t showcase the team that we are.”

What Coach Esko feels is more indicative of her team is their play in the fifth and final set.

“They responded and realized coming into game five that we’re better,” said Coach Esko.

The Lady Roadrunners fell behind the Seahawks 5-0 in the last set. It looked like the match was going to slip out of the Lady Roadrunners’ hands, but they were able to get themselves together.

It was an ace by outside hitter/middle blocker, Bree Newton, that jump-started Rio in the fifth set. The Lady Roadrunners quickly erased the 5-0 deficit and tied the game at 8-a-piece. The Rio Ladies didn’t look back. They ended up winning the fifth and final set 15-12.

Despite getting the win, Coach Esko knows she can’t ignore what happen in the third and fourth sets of Friday’s match with LA Harbor.

“We got to learn from [games three and four], we got to really understand who we are as a team, what each and every player’s capability is and be consistent in that area,” said Coach Esko. “When we understand where we’re at as a team and what our capability is… we’re going to be just fine, but we can’t waiver at all.”

When asked what she hopes to see from the Rio Hondo Lady Roadrunners in their next matchup, Coach Esko smiled and had one thing to say: “consistency.”