Pirates fall in state semis to Santa Monica

SAN DIEGO -- The defending state champion Orange Coast College men's volleyball team will have to relinquish its crown after losing in three sets to Santa Monica City College in the semifinals of the 2015 California Community College Athletic Association Men's Volleyball State Championships.

Despite a 17-kill, six dig performance by freshman outside hitter Adrian Faitalia, the Pirates had no answer for the relentless Corsairs and lost, 25-20, 25-21, 25-15, on Thursday, at San Diego City College.

Coast (16-6) was its own worst enemy with 15 service errors and 24 hitting errors that resulted in a .087 hitting percentage. Comparatively, the Corsairs (17-2), champions of the Western State Conference in 2015, had only nine hitting errors for a .318 percentage. Taylor Tattersall and Daniel Vazira each had seven kills for SBCC, while Luis Paios added six and Hamzat Agaba chipped in five.

After dropping the first set, Coast had an outstanding opportunity to even the match at a set apiece after jumping out to a 19-16 advantage. But, the Corsairs kept fighting back and outscored the Pirates 9-2 down the stretch to grab control of the match.

In the third set, Santa Monica never trailed and pulled away from the Pirates midway through with a 10-4 run, which led to a 16-8 advantage. Coast never threatened the rest of the way.

Nick Amado added seven hills and three total blocks, while setter Steven Duhoux dished out 28 assists for OCC.

SEASON NOTES -- Faitalia just missed cracking the top 10 on OCC's single-season kill list and finished with 320, just 14 behind Brian Lewis, who ranks 10th with 334 set in 1989 ... sophomore setter Duhoux wrapped up his season with 772 assists, good for 10th on the school's single-season list ... freshman libero Alec Podrasky notched 227 digs, which is fourth-best all time for a single season in Coast history.