Olympians dethrone Pirates in four sets

COSTA MESA – The San Diego Mesa College men's volleyball team finally ended the impressive three-year state championship run of the Orange Coast College Pirates with a four-set win in the second semifinal match of the 3C2A Men's Volleyball State Championships inside OCC's Peterson Gym.

With the 25-21, 22-25, 25-21, 25-22 win, the No. 3-seeded Olympians (21-3) will take on top-seeded Golden West College (22-2) for the state crown … a first-ever state crown for the SD Mesa men's volleyball program.

"For us, tonight it was experience," Olympians head coach David Proffitt said. "I felt like we finally got to the point where we believed we could win here. We did a better job of resetting between plays and staying mentally tough. OCC is an amazing program. The coaching staff and all of the players who come through here are amazing, so it was an honor to play such a good opponent. Three different times we've come here to OCC and just couldn't get the job done, but I'm so proud of our boys for getting it done tonight."

SDMC's Trevor Clark – the 6-foot-10 outside hitter bound for UC Irvine in the fall, was the Olympians' go-to guy all night and the big guy delivered, ripping 28 kills with just four errors on 53 attempts (a .453 hitting percentage). Julian Montes and Brandon Underwood each had seven kills, while Ethan Hornyak added six. Setter Logan Shepard dished out 41 assists, while Rylan Koser anchored Mesa's 31-dig effort on defense with a team-best eight digs.

For the Pirates (21-4), Kam Vakilian led the way with 15 kills, while Noah Keelin added 10 to go along with seven digs.

After both teams traded points in the early stages, the Olympians had the first crucial run of the opening set, outscoring Coast 9-4 to grab a 16-12 lead midway through the opener.

OCC showed why the last three men's volleyball championships reside in Costa Mesa and got to within a point on three different occasions down the stretch, including on a Keelin kill which brought Coast to within a point at 22-21.

But a kill by Clark and a pair of OCC hitting errors gave the Olympians the final three points and a 25-21 win in the opening set.

The Pirates regrouped and played their best volleyball of the night in the second set, jumping out to a 19-15 advantage. Strong hitting and serving by Vakilian (three aces) helped pave the way for OCC to even the set at 1-1. With Coast ahead 23-22, Vakilian put away the next point before a Keelin kill wrapped up the second set for the host Pirates.

Coast carried some momentum early into the third set and scored seven of the first 10 points, before the Olympians regrouped and went on an 18-7 outburst to grab a 21-15 advantage and after some back-and-forth between both clubs, Mesa used an OCC hitting error on set point to prevail 25-21 in the all-important third set.

From there, Mesa would not be denied. The Pirates battled back from a couple of deficits and used back-to-back kills by Gavin Kosolchareon to tie the fourth set up at 22. Coast tried to grab the lead, but the next hitting attempt went outside the court putting Mesa up, 23-22. From there, back-to-back kills by Clark took care of business for the Olympians.

Up next comes the third meeting this year between the Olympians and the Rustlers. Both times, Mesa prevailed over GWC, but Proffitt knows that those don't matter when it comes to championship match time. "Golden West is an amazing program," Proffitt said. "(Head Coach) Nick Amado is a great guy and we know that it's hard to beat a team three times in a row, so we know we've got our work cut out for us."

(Tony Altobelli, Orange Coast College Athletics)