The No. 1 state-ranked Long Beach City College men's volleyball team has just two losses all season, but both have come from Moorpark College. On Wednesday with revenge on their minds, the Vikings suffered a 3-0 Western State Conference loss to the visiting ninth-ranked Raiders at home.
Moorpark won the match by scores of 26-24, 30-28, and 25-23. The match was much closer than the final results would indicate. LBCC stormed out to leads early in each set and held late advantages in Set 1 and 2 but couldn't hold off the Raiders' rally.
Set 1 saw Long Beach jump out to a 5-1 lead. Moorpark stayed close and eventually tied the set at 15-15 after two LBCC hitting errors. A kill by sophomore Rob McLean (East Northport, NY) gave Long Beach a 20-17 lead and LBCC was up 22-20 after a hitting error by Moorpark's Trevor Lanzarotta.
The two teams continued to exchange points. Sophomore Max Wechsung's kill tied the set at 24 before a LBCC ball handling error and a block by Tyler Peterson and Josh Duarte gave the Raiders the 26-24 win.
Set 2 was more of the same. Long Beach led 11-5 and held a 17-11 advantage after kills from freshmen Jacob MacRae (Wilson HS) and Brett Anema (Valley Christian HS) and a Moorpark hitting error. A kill by sophomore Aniefre Etim-Thomas (Wilson HS) put LBCC up 21-15 before Moorpark once again rallied back.
The Raiders won the next six points to tie the set up at 21-21. Long Beach still had set point at 25-24, 27-26, and 28-27 but couldn't close out the victory. A kill by Dustan Neary tied the score 28-28 while a Lanzarotta kill and a hitting error by Wechsung gave Moorpark Set 2.
Long Beach stormed out to a 4-0 lead in Set 3, but that was as big as an advantage either team would hold. The score was tied 11 times in the set before a kill by Neary gave the Raiders the set and match sweep.
McLean led Long Beach with 14 kills to go with seven digs and two blocks. Wechsung posted 25 assists, five kills, and three aces while Etim-Thomas had six kills and four blocks.
Lanzarotta and Peterson paced Moorpark (9-6, 4-4 WSC) with 12 kills. Evan Litchfield had 36 assists and seven digs.
Despite the loss, Long Beach (13-2, 6-2 WSC) can still capture the conference championship outright with two wins to close out the season. LBCC hosts El Camino College on Friday (Apr 6) in a big match that will likely decide the title. The Warriors also lost on Wednesday to fall to 6-2 in conference play.
LBCC closes out the regular season next Wednesday night (Apr 11) at Santa Barbara City College.
Photo by Chris Ruiz