Pirates rally to top Corsairs in State Semifinal

WOODLAND HILLS -- The Orange Coast College men's volleyball team overcame an early deficit to defeat the defending state champion Santa Monica City College Corsairs in four sets to advance to the title match of the California Community College Athletic Association Men's Volleyball Championships, played at L.A. Pierce College on Thursday night.

With the win, the Pirates (21-2) will return to the state finals for the second time in three years and will take on the winner of Thursday's other semifinal matchup between Golden West and Long Beach City. The title match will take place on Saturday at 7 p.m., also at L.A. Pierce College.

With the absence of starting opposite Jordan Hoppe, the Pirates turned to reserve Wyatt Henson and the freshman did not disappoint his teammates, ripping 11 kills on 18 attempts with just four errors to go along with two digs and a block. Adrian Faitalia and Gianluca Grasso also notched 11 kills each, while Faitalia and Max Gamboa each had six digs for the Pirates.

Jake Adams dished out 36 assists to to along with three aces and three digs for Coast, winners of 12 straight matches.

Richard Yu led the Corsairs (12-9) with 16 kills and five digs, while Roscoe Nelms added 13 kills and six digs. Setter Joseph Mayer provided 38 assists, while libero Max Garris anchord the SBC defense with seven digs.

Coast led 21-19 in the opening set only to watch the Corsairs rip off four straight points to grab a 23-21 advantage. Coast responded with a kill and an ace by Grasso to tie the score at 23, but Santa Monica used a Grasso service error and a Yu put-away to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five match.

In the second set, OCC was on the verge of falling two sets down, trailing, 20-17, before the Pirates showed why they were winners of the Pacific Coast Conference. After a SMC service error made it 20-18, Coast used back-to-back blocks by the pair of Faitalia and Will Donald to tie the match at 20 before a Yu hitting error put the Pirates in front, 21-20.

Following a Corsair timeout, Adams came out and produced a huge service ace, putting OCC ahead, 22-20. Santa Monica would get the next point, but the Pirates would use a pair of SMC errors and a kill by Grasso to even the match at a set apiece.

Coast grabbed control of the third set right away and bolted out to a 22-12 lead and never looked back as the Pirates grabbed a 2-1 set lead in the match.

Both teams went back and forth in the pivotal fourth set as the lead switched hands 12 different times.

Santa Monica held a set-point at 24-23 and was one point away from forcing a fifth set before Faitalia ripped a kill to tie the set at 24.

After the Pirates dug up a hitting attempt by the Corsairs, Coast went to Henson, who found the opening to put OCC up, 25-24.

The match came to and end on the very next point as a Corsair kill attempt sailed wide.