Vikings’ state title hopes come to an end with five-set loss to Irvine Valley

The 2014 Long Beach City College men's volleyball season came to a screeching halt after a marathon five-set loss to visiting Irvine Valley College on Friday in a quarterfinal-round match of the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) State Championships.

The 25-19, 19-25, 23-25, 25-20, 15-12 loss dashed the Vikings' hope of capturing a ninth state championship. Long Beach, the Western State Conference's No. 2 seed for the playoffs, closes its season with a 15-5 overall record and will have to wait until next spring to make a state title run.

Sophomore Henry Taylor (Calvary Chapel HS) led the Vikings' offense with 16 kills to go along with three blocks while freshman Caleb Hutchinson (Henderson, NV) came off the bench to post a double-double with 12 kills and 10 blocks. Sophomore setter Tim Davis (Lakewood HS) posted 53 assists and nine digs in his final match in a Vikings' uniform.

Despite the outcome for LBCC, the epic playoff match will likely go down as one of the best this season. The contest saw 34 tie scores and 14 lead changes.

With the match tied 2-2, the Vikings stormed out to a 6-3 lead in the fifth set and appeared to have momentum on its side. But a pair of controversial calls by the officials against the Vikings got Irvine Valley back in the game.  Irvine Valley took its first lead of the fifth at 10-9 after a LBCC error.

Long Beach tied up the score one last time at 10-10 thanks to an IVC error, but back-to-back errors by LBCC gave the Lasers a two-point advantage that they wouldn't give up. Sophomore Relyea Speller's (Wauwatosa, WI) kill gave the Vikings life at 14-12, but Kevin Vaz' middle kill sealed the set and match victory for Irvine Valley.

Irvine Valley (13-7), the No. 3 seed out of the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference, will take on PCAC champion Orange Coast College in Wednesday's CCCAA State Championship semifinal at Santiago Canyon College.

In tonight's other quarterfinal, Santa Monica College (WSC #3) went on the road to sweep Grossmont College (PCAC #2) 25-18, 25-18, 27-25. Santa Monica will take on WSC champion El Camino College in the 5 p.m. semifinal.