The Cerritos College volleyball team lost by 3-1 at home against Fullerton on Sept. 11.

The Falcons managed to win the first set but lost the next three sets against Fullerton. They finished closely with 46 kills to Fullerton’s 50 kills.

As for their serving, the Falcons scored 43 aces, one shy of Fullerton’s 44 aces in the game.

Teresa Velasquez-Ortega, the Falcon’s head coach, gave her thoughts about the game. “We need to work on our freshmen (players). All the freshmen and the whole team stopped playing (during the game).

“We’re getting better and better. Hopefully by the time we get to conference, the team is going to have more chemistry.”

Ortega went on to talk about the areas the Falcons need to work on. “I think we’re going to keep on practicing on passing and serving because (they are) the key(s) to winning.

“We need more confidence. We need to start playing and finish playing. We start(ed) playing (well), but at the end of the game, we kind of stopp(ed).”

Right side hitter and middle blocker Sarah Hickman said, “My team did very well. We worked and practiced, and everything that we worked on in practice had come out well. We did it really (well) in the game.

“The only thing i would say we need to work on is our communication. We need to talk louder since the gym is really loud.”

Outside hitter, Julie Isais, also gave her thoughts, “Honestly, I was suprised that we went back-to-back with them. Other than that, we need to work on a lot of communication and have to just be together as a family.”

Isais went on to say that a difference between the Cerritos team and the Fullerton team in the game was the bond that Fullerton had with the rest of its team.

The Falcons will be competing in the San Diego Mesa/Grossmont invitational and the Allan Hancock Quad invitational. According to Ortega, these tournaments will be good experiences for the team’s conference games.

The Falcons’ next games will be on Sept. 20 at the San Diego Mesa/Grossmont invitational. Two games will be played with one game against San Bernandino at 3 p.m. and another game to be announced.

The Allan Hancock Quad invitational will start at Sept. 28 against College of the Desert at 1 p.m.