Men's Volleyball: Long Beach downs Irvine Valley to reserve spot in state final

Sophomore Rob McLean (East Northport, NY, pictured right) and freshman Jo'Lon Clark (Poly HS, pictured left) both posted 16 kills to help lead host Long Beach City College to a 3-1 win over Irvine Valley College in Semifinal #2 of the 2012 California Community College Athletic Association Men's Volleyball State Championship on Thursday night at the Hall of Champions Gym.

Long Beach, champions of the Western State Conference, won the match by scores of 25-20, 24-26, 25-21, 25-19 to advance to Saturday's state championship final match at 7 pm against Orange Coast College. OCC was a 3-0 winner over Grossmont College in Semifinal #1 earlier.

The opening set was tight with nine ties. Neither team led by more than two until late in the set. With the score tied at 20, a service error by Zak Beard gave LBCC a 21-20 advantage. Behind the serving of Luc Sybunroeung (Poly HS), the Vikings rallied for the final five points, including consecutive blocks by Aniefre Etim-Thomas (Wilson HS) to close out the win, 25-20.

Long Beach appeared well on its way to taking Set 2, but couldn't put away Irvine Valley. Clark's late kill gave LBCC set point at 24-22. But a kill by Beard and three straight Long Beach hitting errors allowed Irvine Valley to steal the set by a final of 26-24.

The Vikings came out focused in the third, jumping ahead 5-2. But a pair of kills by IVC's Trevor Lund and two Long Beach errors put the Lasers back ahead 6-5. With the score tied at 11, LBCC put together another run with two kills and an ace from McLean and a block by Etim-Thomas and Clark to jump ahead 14-11.

Long Beach led 24-18 but once again had trouble putting away the Lasers. A kill by IVC's Jeff Austin, a block by Mark Metrakos, and a Clark hitting error got Irvine Valley within three at 24-21, but a crosscourt kill from Clark sealed the third-set win.

LBCC closed it out with an impressive win in Set 4. Long Beach built a commanding 19-12 lead that the Lasers couldn't recover from. Clark once again capped the win with a kill off McLean's pass to send the Vikings to their first state title match since 2009.

Etim-Thomas had a match-high nine blocks to go with six kills for Long Beach (16-2). Max Wechsung (St. John Bosco HS) posted 28 assists, seven kills, and nine digs.

For Irvine Valley (12-8), Lund led the Lasers with 14 kills. Beard totaled 12 kills and Metrakos had 10 kills. Kevin Fiske led all with 42 assists.

Photo by John Fajardo