Pirates set to host Ventura, Santa Barbara in playoff opener
COSTA MESA -- The Orange Coast College beach volleyball team will host the opening matches of the Southern California Regional Team Playoffs beginning on Tuesday, as the Pirates host No. 8 Santa Barbara City College and No. 9 Ventura College at Huntington Beach's Newland Street Volleyball Courts.
OCC will host Ventura at 10 a.m. Coast will then take a break as Ventura will do battle with Santa Barbara at 11 a.m. OCC will then host the VC Pirates at 12 p.m. Start times for the second and third matchups are approximate.
"The team is very excited to be playing and hosting in team regionals this year," OCC head coach Chuck Cutenese said. "The keys are going to be serving and finishing, which are two things we've been working on all season."
The No. 1-seeded Pirates, 14-0 overall and champions of the Western Division of the Orange Empire Conference (10-0) have played in 70 matches this year as a team and is a remarkable 67-3, dropping one contest to No. 4 seed Cypress and two to No. 2 Irvine Valley.
Leading the way for OCC will be three pairs of players who earned spots in the upcoming CCCAA Beach Pairs Regionals on Friday ... the pairs of Rachel Blair/Brisa Zapata-Reaves, Alanna Shields/Sophia Sola and Lexy Mendoza/Paige Cutwright. Joining that trio of squads on Tuesday include the pairs of Sara Enright/Summer Hanks and Jadyn Pope/Rachel Street.
Up first for the OCC Pirates will be the No. 9-seed Ventura College Pirates, who enter today's regional at 14-4 overall. Only two of the VC Pirates' four losses came against two-year programs and both were against the other team in Tuesday's trio ... SBCC (both 3-2 defeats).
For the No. 8 seeded Vaqueros, they have rolled the table, minus a 5-0 nonconference loss to Northern California's top seed, Cabrillo College.
