Pirates end regular season with sweep over Santiago Canyon

COSTA MESA -- Fresh off of an impossible come-from-behind win at Irvine Valley College on Wednesday, the Orange Coast College men's volleyball team had a bit of an easier time in Friday's regular season finale, a three-set sweep over visiting Santiago Canyon inside the Peterson Gym.

Wednesday's win over the Lasers, a five-set thriller that ended with OCC winning, 18-25, 25-16, 19-25, 32-30, 16-14 (Coast trailed 13-6 in the fifth set), sealed the Orange Empire Conference title for the Pirates, while Friday's win over the Hawks simply closed the chapter on the 2018 regular season. Coast has earned the No. 2 seed and will host the state quarterfinals of the Southern California Regional playoffs against Santa Barbara City College on Friday, beginning at 6 p.m.

Coast (18-2, 8-0 in OEC) emptied the bench against the Hawks and had several key contributions. 

Wyatt Rowland led the Pirates with 10 kills. Cole Aidnik added nine kills, while a trio of Pirates -- Jake Loudenback, GK Kailiwai and Jack Flynn each chipped in six. 

Sophomore Ivan Garcia Burgos, playing in his last regular season match in his Coast career, finished with six digs, two aces and even notched a kill for the Pirates.

SCC (5-15, 0-8) kept the opening set close with strong play by the trio of Andrew Desrochers (nine kills), Caleb Twyman (nine kills) and Gustavo Marquez (eight kills). The Hawks evened the opening set at 11 before a 7-0 run by the Pirates helped the hosts take the opening set. 

In the second set, SCC again hung tough and trailed 18-17, only to see the Pirates take advantage of several Hawk errors to end things on a 7-1 run.

The Hawks came out with a 9-4 run to start the third set and actually held a set point on the Pirates at 24-23. But a kill by Rowland, a block by Loudenback and a kill by Aidnik ended any thoughts of a fourth set as OCC prevailed to sweep past the Hawks.