Pirates to host Mounties in SoCal Regional Play-in match

COSTA MESA -- The Orange Coast College women's volleyball team will return to the Peterson Gym on Saturday night to host Mt. San Antonio College in the Southern California Regionals play-in match, beginning at 7 p.m.

The Pirates (17-8), fifth-place finishers in the always-tough Orange Empire Conference, was awarded the 16th seed in this year's playoffs, while the Mounties (14-13), runners-up in the South Coast Conference's North Division, was chosen as the 17th seed.

After a season-opening setback to El Camino, OCC went on an 11-match winning streak that saw the Pirates drop just seven sets along the way.

Perhaps the most impressive of those 11 wins came on Sept. 20 when the Pirates hosted Cypress and, despite losing a two-set lead in the match, showed tremendous character and pulled out a 25-16, 25-20, 20-25, 23-25, 15-13 marathon win over the highly-ranked Chargers.

In that match on Sept. 20, sophomore setter/outside hitter Devyn Holland put on a performance of the season. In addition to dishing out 20 assists and notching 10 digs, she also led the Pirates with 14 kills for her lone "triple-double" of the season. Holland finished the regular season leading the team with 178 kills to go along with her team-best 539 assists and 49 service aces. Her 177 digs finished third-best on the team, behind libero Rylee Adair (462) and libero/outside hitter Sierra Lim (307).

Joining Holland on the OCC offense includes freshman opposite Evelyn Awai (150 kills, 116 digs), sophomore opposite Aubrey St. Laurent (112 kills), freshman middle blocker Alibelle Pilimai (101 kills, team-best 55 blocks) and Lim (80 kills).

For the Mounties, they didn't share a lot of common ranked opponents, but if there's a team that could give Coast an idea of their ability, simply ask the aforementioned Cypress College Chargers, who went 3-0 vs. Mt. SAC, but all three matches were five-set battles that went down to the final blow of the whistle.

The offense of the Mounties begins and ends with sophomore middle blocker Jordan Wilson, who leads the team with 266 kills and 101 total blocks. If the defense keys on Wilson, look for outside hitters Sierra Lujan (139 kills, 127 digs) and Shaianne Palos (115 kills, 59 total blocks) to step and provide offensive support.

The offensive decision-making comes from setters Brianda Valdez (396 assists, 136 digs) and Saipeti Fuiava (201 assists, 123 digs), while defensive specialist Malia Carr (329 digs) anchors the defense.

NOTE: Due to CCCAA mandates, playoff ticket prices are as follows ... 

• $12 for Adults
• $8 for Seniors 65+, students, staff, children under 12

NO PASSES ACCEPTED.