Freshman Austin Arcala had 13 kills and 11 digs to help lead the Long Beach City College men's volleyball team to an impressive 25-23, 25-17, 25-22 win on Tuesday over visiting Orange Coast College in a quarterfinal match of the 2013 California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) Men's Volleyball State Championship.
The defending state champion Vikings, now 15-3 overall, are just two wins away from capturing the college's ninth state championship. Long Beach, the No. 2 seed from the Western State Conference, will face Pacific Coast Athletic Conference champion Grossmont College on Thursday (Apr. 18) at 7:30 p.m. for the right to advance to the state title match.
In Tuesday's win over Orange Coast, the Vikings cruised to victories in the opening sets before having to come-from-behind late in the third to complete the sweep.
Orange Coast, the PCAC No. 3 seed, jumped out to a 7-3 lead in the third thanks to five LBCC errors. A kill by OCC's Johannes Brink gave the Pirates a 14-9 advantage before the Vikings slowly began to chip away.
Trailing 17-14, Long Beach got consecutive kills from Arcala, a kill by sophomore Jo'Lon Clark, and an OCC error tied the match up at 17-17.
LBCC took its first lead of the set after getting two kills from sophomore Jake Burkhardt and a block by Clark and Burkhardt to go ahead 20-18. But four Viking errors allowed the Pirates to tie the score once again at 21-21 before LBCC finally took over.
A big block by Clark and freshman Eron Liddie gave LBCC a 22-21 lead before a Jake Burkhardt ace gave the Vikings match point. After an OCC kill by Brink, Clark sealed the victory for Long Beach with a kill off the right side.
Clark and sophomore Jon Schaefer both totaled 10 kills for the Vikings. Sophomore Greg Utupo posted eight kills and six digs while freshman Tim Davis had 26 assists.
For Orange Coast (12-7), Cody Martin led the Pirates with 11 kills. Brink and Austin Bagby added nine kills while Brendan Duff totaled 21 assists to go with four blocks.
Looking forward to Thursday's semifinal, Long Beach and Grossmont met once earlier this season. On February 13, Long Beach pulled out a 3-1 (38-36, 25-22, 20-25, 25-18) win at Grossmont.
Golden West College 3, El Camino College 2: Golden West (PCAC No. 2) defeated El Camino (WSC No. 3) in five sets (23-25, 25-23, 25-15, 23-25, 15-6) at home to advance to Thursday's other semifinal match. Golden West will face Western State Conference top seed Los Angeles Pierce College at 5 p.m. at LBCC.
