The Rio Hondo College women's volleyball team had its run for a conference championship come to an end on Friday after its 3-0 loss to El Camino College in the semifinals of the South Coast Conference tournament at Long Beach City College.
The Roadrunners will still have a chance to earn some hardware as they will face No. 3 seed Pasadena City College in the third-place game on Tuesday (Nov. 19) at 5 p.m. in Long Beach. A possible spot in the Southern California Regional Playoffs could be on the line as both teams still have postseason hopes.
PCC suffered a 3-0 loss to No. 2 Long Beach in the other semifinal. The Lancers are 19-8 overall and 10-6 in the SCC. Pasadena has won both previous meetings this season over the Roadrunners 3-0.
On Friday, No. 1-seeded El Camino had to rally from behind to beat No. 4 Rio Hondo 25-20 in the opening set but then cruised to 25-11 and 25-8 victories to close out the match.
The Roadrunners got off to a quick lead in Set 1, storming out to a 5-2 advantage after a kill by Sierra Smethurst. Rio Hondo was up 13-11 after another Smethurst kill before El Camino rallied for seven straight points to take the lead for good at 18-13.
El Camino opened the second set with an 8-1 lead and began the third by going out in front 7-1 before rolling to the wins.
Alina Velo led the Roadrunners with 7 kills. Smethurst added 4 kills while Aliah Trujillo totaled 20 assists.
On defense, Janine Coria had a team-best 16 digs while Nicole Vasquez posted 8 digs.
The loss evened up Rio Hondo's SCC record at 8-8 and moved the Roadrunners to 14-11 overall.
