Pirates overcome early stumble, topple Rustlers, in four

COSTA MESA -- After an early scare, the Orange Coast College women's volleyball team maintained focus and rolled past visiting Golden West in four sets on Wednesday night inside the Peterson Gym.

Sara Enright led the OCC offense with 21 kills, while Summer Hanks tacked on 19 and Faith Jones added 10.

After a hard-fought, five-set marathon during the first round of Orange Empire Conference play, Round 2 looked like it was going to be a quick night for the Pirates (18-4, 11-3 in the conference) as OCC led 17-8 in the opening set.

But the Rustlers (13-7, 7-6) found some momentum and proceeded to go on a huge run. After cutting the lead down to eight at 20-12, GWC scored 10 of the next 11 points and snagged a 22-21 advantage. Both teams traded blows and each team had two set-point opportunities as the set went beyond 25 points. Finally, with the Rustlers leading 27-26, an errant OCC return attempt ended things with the Rustlers stealing the opening set.

But the Pirates regrouped and maintained focus through all that and rolled over GWC in the second set, leading by as many as 13 at 19-6. Three kills by Hanks and three kills by Enright during that run proved to be too much for the Rustlers to overcome.

A brief GWC run pulled the guests back to within single digits at 19-11, but an OCC 4-0 run took the wind out of the Rustlers' sails as the match evened up at a set apiece.

The third set had a much closer feel for awhile as both teams were deadlocked at 10. But, OCC grabbed hold of the momentum and went on a 10-2 run to pull away and never look back. Hanks was key during that run with four big kills, while Jones and Paige Cutwright added a kill each. GWC never threatened the rest of the way and the Pirates grabbed a 2-1 set lead in the match.

The Rustlers, led by the strong hitting of Adriana Morales, jumped out to an early 10-7 lead in the hopes of pushing the match to a fifth set. But Enright and the Pirates would not be denied as she ripped off three big kills during a 6-0 run to put the Pirates in front, 13-10.

Iliana Galindo came off the GWC bench and provided a spark with two kills and a block to push the Rustlers in front, 14-13 before OCC answered back with a 4-0 run of its own to make it 17-14. It was a lead that the Pirates would not lose the rest of the night. 

With the win, OCC remains in a tie for second place with Irvine Valley (IVC owns the tiebreaker) with two road matches remaining for the Pirates. Coast will travel to first-place Cypress to take on the Chargers on Friday, beginning at 6 p.m.