Pirates open conference play with sweep over Olympians
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
San Diego Mesa | 20 | 18 | 15 | 0 |
|
Orange Coast | 25 | 25 | 25 | 3 |
COSTA MESA -- After a two-day delay, the Orange Coast College men's volleyball team finally kicked off Pacific Coast Conference play and the Pirates rolled to a straight-set win over visiting San Diego Mesa on Friday night inside the Peterson Gym.
After Wednesday night's PCC opener with Irvine Valley was halted due to a campus-wide power failure, the Pirates kept the voltage high on Friday with a 25-20, 25-18, 25-15 win over the visiting Olympians.
Gianluca Grasso led the Pirates (8-1, 1-0) with 13 kills and five digs. Adrian Faitalia added seven kills and six digs, while Jordan Hoppe contributed five digs. Setters Sean Keyes, Jake Adams and Andrew McCall combined for 35 assists as the offense was spread around the entire OCC lineup.
For the Olympians (2-6, 0-2), Wyatt Pederson led the offense with 13 kills.
Coast jumped out to a comfortable 18-12 lead before the Mesa closed the game with a 7-3 run to make it 21-18. But back-to-back points by the Pirates helped stem the Mesa rally and allowed Coast to take the opening set.
In the second set, OCC jumped ahead 8-4 and used its defense to not allow the Olympians to get back into things. In fact, only once did Mesa earn back-to-back points as the Pirates held on for the seven-point win.
It was all Coast in the third set as the Pirates pulled ahead 11-5 and never looked back. Grasso picked up four of his 13 kills in the final set, while Faitalia and Tommy Casey also earned key points for the OCC offense.
The Pirates will replay Wednesday night's match with IVC on Saturday, beginning at 7 p.m. OCC's scheduled ceremony honoring Newport Rib Company's John Ursini will take place during Coast's match with Golden West on Friday, April 1, at 6 p.m.
