After the first day of the South Coast Conference Pairs Tournament at El Camino College, the Cerritos College beach volleyball team has qualified at least one of their duos for the Southern California Tournament on May 2-3. The Falcons, who had five pairs competing in the tournament, will have two of them facing off with the winner as one of the automatic qualifiers. The South Coast Conference qualifies six pairs for the SoCal Tournament.

Seeded #3 for the tournament, the pairing of sophomore Monserrat Rodriguez (Gahr HS) and Rosie Cazares-Gonzalez (El Rancho HS) opened their day with a come-from-behind 21-23, 21-13, 15-6 win over #14-seed Itzel Aguayo and Fedra Lei of Mt. San Antonio College. They dropped into a must-win situation on Saturday after they were defeated, 19-21, 17-21 by #6-seeded Enaya Vaielua and Tyreanna Allen of Long Beach City College.

In their first match of the day, #5-seeded sophomore Leeya Rubio (Schurr HS) and freshman Josie Navarro (Sierra Vista HS) posted a 21-15, 21-8 win over #12-seeded Bella Branconier and Stacie Alexander of College of the Desert, but then absorbed a 14-21, 12-21 loss to top-seeded Candace Ceballos and Madeline Castillo of Mt. San Antonio. They will be facing Mikayla Curry and Kaylani Moncada of Long Beach City, with the winner advancing to the SoCal Tournament.

As for Rodriguez and Cazares-Gonzalez, they will have to take on sophomore Brisa Cortez (Schurr HS) and freshman Nayeli SalasOrtiz (Schurr HS) on Saturday, with the winner also advancing. Seeded #10, Cortez and SalasOrtiz earned a 13-21, 21-16, 15-6 win over Maggie Acevedo and Alanna Jones of Long Beach City, which then pitted the duo against #7-seeded Emma Carson and Eva Fisher of Mt. SAC. The Falcon pair earned a 12-21, 21-11, 15-12 win, but then dropped a 19-21, 19-21 match to #2-seeded Erica Griffiths and Scheala Nielsen of El Camino College.

The team's fourth pair, #17-seeded freshman Herlinda Casanova (St. Joseph HS) and sophomore Juliette Casillas (La Serna HS) were defeated in their lone match, 21-19, 13-21, 10-15 to #16-seeded Zoe Lekan and Zariah Honeycutt of El Camino. Also taking part in the tournament was #20-seeded sophomores Abby Gutierrez (Downey HS) and Aiyana Sierra (La Mirada HS), who dropped a 14-21, 16-21 loss to #13-seeded Payton Garrison and Perla Lopez of El Camino.