Long Beach City surge pushes Vikings into tie for top spot in CCCMVCA rankings

(Courtesy Irvine Valley College Athletics)

IRVINE - With sweeps in its first two South Coast Conference matches last week, Long Beach City has moved into a tie with Irvine Valley for the top spot of the latest California Community College Men’s Volleyball Coaches Association State Poll.

Long Beach swept Moorpark, 25-12, 25-16, 25-17 at home on Wednesday and then defeated Santa Monica, 25-17, 25-18, 25-19, on the road Friday.

In the win over the Corsairs, Matthew Pennala finished with 18 kills and hit .429, Sean Nguyen ran the offense with 38 assists and four players had at least five digs, led by Pennala and Julian Zavala with seven apiece.

The Vikings play at No. 5 Santa Barbara City on Wednesday night in one of the important matches of the week.

After dropping its first match of the season in five sets at San Diego Mesa on Feb. 22, Irvine Valley has rolled off three straight wins, including sweeping Miramar and Grossmont at home last week. In the 25-17, 25-19, 25-14 victory over Grossmont, Demetre Gossett finished with six kills and four aces, Julio Gutierrez had five hills and hit .500, while Kaina Alvarez ended with 14 assists and two aces.

The Lasers travel to Palomar Wednesday for their lone match of the week. But Orange Empire Conference play starts next week and IVC opens at home against No. 3 Orange Coast on Mar. 15 in what is sure to be a showdown.

Orange Coast also swept two San Diego area schools last week, recording wins over Palomar and Miramar at home. In a 25-14, 25-15, 25-14 win over Palomar, the Pirates hit a super impressive .672 as a team. Lukas Morse and Mitchell Keddle each had seven kills, Landon Seymour contributed 24 assists and Hide Nakamura added 12 digs.

San Diego Mesa is at No. 4 for the second week in a row. The Olympians topped a pair of OEC squads last week, defeating Fullerton on the road in four sets and then sweeping at Golden West. TJ Letuligasenoa finished with 15 kills and hit .424 and Colton Pilsbury ran the offense with 32 assists. Roy Rojas came through with 21 digs for the Olympians.

Mesa plays host to No. 8 Santiago Canyon Wednesday night.

Santa Barbara City moved up three spots to fifth in the poll with a five-set win at Moorpark last Friday. The Vaqueros bounced back from a three-set loss to Santa Monica at home on Wednesday with the 25-18, 25-23, 18-25, 23-25, 15-11 triumph.

Cole Richards led the way with 26 kills, Carter Cottrell finished with 51 assists and Roth Gulseth had 20 digs for SBCC.

The rest of the top 10 includes Moorpark, Miramar, Santiago Canyon, Santa Monica and Antelope Valley.

As far as state leaders go, Peter-Kalani Suiaunoa is tops in kills per set (4.54). Irvine Valley’s Adam Schulte leads in digs per set (3.74), Mesa’s Letuligasenoa is best in hitting percentage at .388 and Santa Barbara’s Sean Ortiz averages 1.27 blocks per set.

(Irvine Valley College Athletics)

CCCMVCA Highlighted Student-Athlete of the Week: Conor Wachala (Setter, So., Antelope Valley)

Antelope Valley continued its nice start to the 2023 season last week with a five-set, 25-19, 19-25, 25-22, 18-25, 15-12, win over El Camino at home on Friday. A big reason why was the play by Wachala. The 6-5 sophomore finished with a season-high 52 assists and added nine kills, nine digs five aces and four blocks. He is averaging 7.23 assists and 2.19 digs per set for the Marauders, who have a record of 4-4 overall.