State semifinal men's volleyball roundups
Apr 25, 2008
California Community College Athletic Association
Men's Volleyball Championship
April 24/26, 2008
Irvine Valley College (Irvine, CA)
Day 1 - State Championship Semifinals
April 24, 2008
Semifinal 1: Orange Coast 3, Santa Monica 1
Orange Coast College sophomore outside hitter Kevin Welch had a
match-high 27 kills to lead OCC to a 3-1 win over Santa Monica College
in Thursday night's first semifinal of the California Community College
Athletic Association Men's Volleyball Championship at Irvine Valley
College.
Orange Coast College advances to the state championship final for the
12th time by winning the match by scores of 30-24, 31-29, 26-30, and
30-20. It was Orange Coast's second defeat of Santa Monica this season.
Orange Coast had to hold off a late charge by Santa Monica in game one.
Orange Coast surged to a 23-14 lead before Santa Monica rallied to
score eight of the next 10 points to cut OCC's advantage to 25-22.
But OCC outscored SMC, 5-2, the rest of the way to close out the opening-game win at 30-24.
Orange Coast then outlasted SMC in game two to pull out the 31-29 marathon win.
Santa Monica led, 27-25, late in the game before Orange Coast rallied to
tie the score at 29. But three straight hitting errors by Santa Monica
gave Orange Coast the victory.
Orange Coast appeared to be on its way to a tough sweep, but couldn't put Santa Monica away in game three as SMC won, 30-26.
Orange Coast bounced back and finished the job with a 30-20 game four
win. Trailing, 11-10, Orange Coast turned it on and never looked back.
OCC got four straight points to go ahead 14-11 and went on to outscore
Santa Monica, 20-9, the rest of the game.
"Overall we played well as a team tonight," said Orange Coast head
coach Travis Turner. "Obviously Kevin (Welch) led the way, but every
one on this team stepped it up for the win."
For OCC, sophomore outside hitter Grant Keene added 14 kills and five
blocks while freshman libero Andrew Pizula posted a season-high 16
digs. Freshman setter Corey Ferraro has 49 assists.
Outside hitter Collin Williamson led Santa Monica (11-6) with 16 kills
and added two blocks. Opposite RJ Storm-Larsen posted 13 kills and two
blocks and middle blocker Quinn Lukens chipped in with seven kills and
four blocks.
Orange Coast (15-6) looks to capture its sixth state title in Saturday's championship final at 7 p.m.
Semifinal 2: Irvine Valley 3, Long Beach 0
Irvine Valley College sophomore outside hitter Peter Johnson posted
match highs with 20 kills and nine digs to lead IVC to a three-game
sweep of Long Beach City College in Thursday's second semifinal match.
Irvine Valley won the match by scores of 30-20, 30-26, and 30-27 to
advance to Saturday's championship final of the California Community
College Athletic Association Men's Volleyball Championship.
After rolling to the 30-20 opening-game win, Irvine Valley had to
overcome late Long Beach rallies in the second and third games to pull
out the sweep.
Long Beach used a 6-2 scoring run to take a 14-11 lead in game two. The
lead changed several times over the next points before the score was
tied at 23. Irvine Valley rolled to five straight points to jump ahead
28-23.
But Long Beach wouldn't quit. LBCC got as close as 29-26 before freshman setter Phil Younglove's kill sealed the game two win.
And it was more of the same in game three.
With the score tied at 12, IVC got eight straight points behind the
serving of freshman middle blocker Nick Martus to surge to a 20-12
advantage. Long Beach slowly began to chip away and cut IVC's lead to
27-25.
But a pair of kills by Martus and Johnson down the stretched sealed the match win and second straight trip to the state finals.
"This was a match up of two really good teams," said Irvine Valley head
coach Tom Pestolesi. "We were fortunate to score more points than them.
It got scary towards the end there. Our ball control broke down. Long
Beach is such a physical team. We knew we couldn't get caught up
playing their style of volleyball."
For IVC (17-2), freshman opposite Reese Haine posted 14 kills and three
aces. Martus added seven kills and seven blocks and Younglove paced the
team with 50 assists.
Freshman outside hitter Casey Bennett led Long Beach (14-5) with 10
kills and one ace. Freshman middle blocker Antwain Aguillard added four
kills and four blocks and freshman setter Andrew Marques posted 16
assists and two blocks.
Irvine Valley looks to capture its third state championship on Saturday when it faces Orange Coast College at 7 p.m. at IVC.