Pirates top Vikings in four to advance to State Final Four!

COSTA MESA -- The Orange Coast College men's volleyball team earned a trip to San Diego as the Pirates topped visiting Long Beach City College in four sets in Friday's state quarterfinals matchup played inside the Peterson Gym.

With the win, Coast (16-5) will advance to the California Community College State Final Four, where they will take on Santa Monica City College (16-2) on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. at San Diego City College in a rematch of last year's state title showdown. Back on Feb. 6, the Corsairs topped the Pirates in four sets, which dropped Coast to 0-3 to start the season, but OCC has come a long way since that slow start, winning 16-of-18 to reach the state semifinals. In the other semifinal matchup, El Camino will take on Grossmont at 8 p.m. The winner of both semifinal matches will play for the state championship on Saturday night at 6 p.m. at SDCC.

Coast took advantage of a smaller, younger Vikings squad and ripped 62 total kills with only 15 errors for a (.336 hitting percentage). Adrian Faitalia led the way with 28 kills, while Nick Amado was unstoppable, ripping 17 kills with no errors to go along with seven blocks. Alec Podrasky anchored the defense with 17 digs, while Brandon Dau added eight. Also with eight digs was sophomore setter Steven Duhoux, who also dished out a whopping 57 assists.

For the Vikings (13-6), Charles Belvin led the offense with 11 digs, while Makoa Tandal added 10 and Alfonso Mata added seven. Austin Amian and Adam Wadley each had 14 digs, while Rupert Scott distributed 43 assists.

Coast jumped out to an early lead in the opening set and never let up. LBCC got to within three at 21-18 before OCC closed out the set with a 4-1 run to grab the early lead in the match.

Long Beach regrouped and never trailed in the second set as the strong play of Tandal and Kingston Tafao (six kills, two blocks) helped even the match at a set apiece.

Coast grabbed hold of all of the momentum early in the third set by jumping out to a 7-0 lead. It was 9-2 before Long Beach pushed back and got to within a point at 11-10, but the Pirates would not relinquish their lead. Back-to-back kills by Kamaha'o Paio and Amado made 13-10 and after both teams traded several points, Coast used a pair of two-point runs to jump ahead 22-18. Coast had a string of 10 straight points converted by kills as the bombs kept flying from the OCC side of the net.

Again, Long Beach got back to within two at 24-22, but a kill by Kyle Hurst sealed the third set and gave Coast a 2-1 advantage.

Much like the third set, Coast jumped ahead quickly in the fourth at 8-2 and led by three straight kills by Faitalia, the Pirate lead jumped up to eight at 18-10. The Vikings would not threaten the rest of the night as back-to-back kills by Faitalia and Paio closed things out.