Pirates overcome slow start to top Palomar

COSTA MESA -- The Orange Coast College men's volleyball team picked things up after a slow start and defeated visiting Palomar College, 22-25, 25-22, 25-22, 25-21 on Friday night inside the Peterson Gym.

It's a dogfight for the final two spots in the Pacific Coast Conference standings as four teams -- Coast, Irvine Valley, Grossmont and San Diego Mesa battle for playoff contention.

With the win, the Pirates remain in the hunt for second place and a home match in the first round of the playoffs at 7-3, 10-5 overall.

Johannes Brink led the Pirates with 23 kills. Cody Martin chipped in 12 kills, while Austin Bagby came up with 10.

On defense, Scott Enos posted eight digs, while Blake Auerbach contributed five.

Setter Brendan Duff paced the offense with 45 assists.

For the Comets (2-14, 1-8), Nick Supple led the way with 10 kills.

The opening set brought back painful memories to Pirate fans of last week's three-set loss to San Diego Mesa as the Comets fought hard and pulled away from Coast with a 25-22 win. Trailing 22-21, Palomar ripped off four straight points to steal the opener.

In the second set, Coast regrouped and came out strong, jumping out to an 8-3 lead. The Coast advantage grew to as many as eight at 22-14 before the Comets went on a furious comeback, ripping off five straight points to creep to within 22-19.

Both teams traded points before a wide return got the Comets to within two at 24-22. But middle blocker Conner Luckey put away the final point of the set with a strong kill to even the match at a set apiece.

Coast played rather sloppy in the third set and trailed the Comets throughout most of the action. The Pirates fell behind by as many as five at 12-7 and trailed 19-15 before kills by Brink and Martin, followed by a block by Duff/Bagby closed the gap to 19-18.

Following a Palomar timeout, the Comets regrouped and used two wide OCC hits to pull back out by three, 21-18.

But the Comets turned in a sloppy finish of their own as two long Comet serves, three errant returns and a net violation "highlighted" a 7-1 finish by the Pirates as they grabbed the lead in the match.

The fourth set was highlighted from start to finish by Brink, who notched 10 kills in the final game alone. Coast led throughout, but when the Comets would get close (22-20), Brink would turn the momentum back to the Pirates as he closed out the match with three straight kills.

The Pirates will now close out the regular season on the road with two crucial PCC matches -- at Grossmont on Wednesday and at Irvine Valley on Friday. Both matches are set to begin at 6 p.m.