Sophomore Jo'Lon Clark and freshman Austin Arcala both had 12 kills while freshman Henry Taylor had a monster match at the net with nine kills and nine blocks to help lead the Long Beach City College men's volleyball team to a 3-1 Western State Conference win over visiting El Camino College on Wednesday night at LBCC.
The 25-9, 25-16, 19-25, 25-22 win improved Long Beach to 10-2 overall and 4-1 in the WSC. The victory also moved the Vikings into a first-place tie atop the conference standings with El Camino (7-5, 4-1 WSC).
LBCC opened the match with an impressive first set. The Vikings hit .471 in the opener and made just one hitting error on their way to the 25-9 win. With the score tied 6-6, Long Beach went on a 13-0 run behind the serving of sophomore Jake Burkhardt. He had two aces over the scoring streak and the Vikings closed the first with five blocks and four aces.
The second set was more of the same for the Vikings. El Camino jumped out to a narrow 11-8 lead before Long Beach put together a 6-0 run and eventually jumped ahead 16-13.
El Camino turned its poor hitting around in the third set to extend the match with a win. The Warriors got out in front 8-5 and eventually beat the Vikings 25-19. ECC had a -.240 hitting percentage in the first, was even worse in the second at -.031 before converting 11 kills on 24 attempts with four errors to hit .292 in the third.
The fourth set was much closer between the two squads. El Camino hung around the Vikings and LBCC never led by more than four points. With Long Beach ahead 20-16, the Warriors rallied one last time to make things interesting.
A kill by El Camino's Karl Acres got the Warriors within one point at 21-20, but the Vikings responded by taking the next three points. Clark's booming kill sealed the set and match win for the Vikings.
Sophomore Greg Utupo totaled seven kills, including six that energized the Vikings in Set 4. Burkhardt had six kills and seven blocks as part of the Vikings' impressive 15.5 blocks on the night.
El Camino was led by Matthew Pimblett's 14 kills. Frank Flanagan had 37 assists to go with five digs.
Long Beach returns to action on Friday (Mar. 22) when it travels to Moorpark College for a 6 p.m. conference match.
