The Long Beach City College men's volleyball team extended its winning streak to five matches thanks to a 25-17, 25-17, 25-18 Western State Conference win over visiting Santa Monica College on Wednesday at LBCC's Viking Gym. With the win, Long Beach improved to 12-2 overall and 6-1 in conference play.
Six LBCC sophomores played in their final regular-season home match tonight. The Vikings will play their final three matches on the road before opening postseason play in mid-April.
Sophomore Greg Utupo (pictured) led a balanced and efficient LBCC attack. He hit an impressive .615 on the night connecting for 10 kills on 13 attempts. He also had five digs to go with three blocks.
For the match, the Vikings hit .384 including .429 in the sweep-clinching third set. Long Beach also came up big at the net, totaling 10 kills. Freshman Henry Taylor led LBCC with six blocks to go with four kills. Sophomore Jake Burkhardt had a good all-around match with four kills, four blocks, and four aces.
For Santa Monica (3-11, 0-7 WSC), Zach Brown led with 12 kills and Mike Mejia had 20 assists.
The Vikings will look for some revenge on Friday night (Mar 29) at 6 p.m. when they travel to face Los Angeles Pierce College. Pierce handed the Vikings their only conference loss of the season and beat LBCC in five back on March 8.
Long Beach closes out the regular-season schedule with matches at El Camino (Apr 5) and Santa Barbara (Apr 10).
