Pirates sweep past Raiders, punch ticket to State Final Four

COSTA MESA -- The Orange Coast College men's volleyball team has punched its ticket to the State Final Four with a sweep over visiting Moorpark College in the state quarterfinals of the CCCAA Men's Volleyball State quarterfinals on Saturday inside the Peterson Gym.

With the win, coupled with Saturday's 25-16, 25-8, 25-18 win for Irvine Valley on Saturday against Santa Monica City College, the second-seeded Pirates and third-seeded Lasers will duke it out on Thursday in the first of two semifinal matchups, beginning at 5 p.m. at El Camino College. In the other semifinal matchup, it will be No. 1-seed Long Beach City College against No. 4 El Camino on Thursday at 7 p.m. at ECC.

Cash Adamsen had a big night for the Pirates (18-1) with 15 kills and three aces. Will Anderson added nine kills and three aces, while Zach Weston came through with eight kills and four blocks.

For the Raiders (11-10), Michael Stahl had nine kills, while Dakota Deuter added six.

The Pirates set the tempo for the match seconds after the National Anthem and jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the opening set. Sam Warren got things going with back-to-back kills, while an Anderson ace and an Adamsen kill highlighted the opening run.

The lead grew to as many as 12 (20-8) in the first set as OCC cruised to an early 1-0 lead in the match.

Moorpark put up a better fight in the second set and was down only a point at 11-10 before a quick 4-0 run pushed the lead up to five, forcing the Raiders into a timeout. Two Adamsen kills and solo put-aways by Weston and Zach Diddy provided that mini-push by the Pirates. The Raiders trimmed a couple of points off of the deficit before Coast put the set away with a 6-1 run. From there, an emphatic Anderson kill ended the set and gave OCC a 2-0 lead.

It was more of the same in the third and final set as Coast jumped out to a 10-4 run early on, thanks to four Adamsen kills and a pair of kills and a block from Anderson.

The Raiders fought back and used an 8-3 run to pull to within a point at 13-12 with three kills from Stahl along the way.

But once again, the Pirates pushed back and ripped off an 8-3 run of their own to regain that six-point margin at 21-15. After that, both teams traded 3-0 spurts before a Warren slam ended the match.

The Pirates won't have to look too far for motivation against the Lasers in the postseason. OCC and IVC hooked up in the state semis in 2019 and the Lasers handed the Pirates their lone loss of the season, ending Coast's campaign at 22-1.