Pirates breeze past Santiago Canyon; showdown with GWC up next
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Santiago Canyon | 18 | 16 | 9 | 0 |
|
Orange Coast | 25 | 25 | 25 | 3 |
COSTA MESA -- The Orange Coast College took care of business on Wednesday, quickly topping visiting Santiago Canyon, 25-18, 25-16, 25-9, in an Orange Empire Conference matchup inside the Peterson Gym.
Head coach Travis Turner managed to use plenty of players against the first-year Hawks and the Pirates (14-1, 4-0 in OEC) took care of business in under an hour. Chris Orem led OCC with 12 kills, while Tyler Reindl added seven and Zane Moothart chipped in six.
Jacob Gilliam dished out 23 assists for Coast, winners of 13 straight and playing its best volleyball at the right time, especially with a home matchup against rival Golden West on Friday (6 p.m.) right around the corner.
For the Hawks (2-10, 0-4), Andrew Desrochers led the offense with seven kills.
Coast picked up 16 kills as a team in the opening set and jumped out to an 11-4 lead en route to the opening-set win.
The Hawks took advantage of some sloppy play in the second set and carried a 15-12 advantage on the state's top-ranked team before OCC applied the breaks and ripped off 12 straight points and rolled from there.
It was all OCC in the third set, rolling out to an 18-6 lead, with Orem (three kills) and Trevor Giese (two kills) leading the way. SCC trimmed the deficit to six at 22-16, but the Pirates would not allow the Hawks to get any closer.
Friday night's match against the Rustlers is "Alumni Night" so all former OCC men's volleyball players are encouraged to attend the match and represent the Pirates as they shoot for their 14th win in a row.
