No. 1 Long Beach City Advances to Title Match; Downs No. 4 El Camino in Four

Courtesy of Rafael Guerrero, El Camino College 

TORRANCE, Calif. --- The quest to repeat is alive for No. 1 Long Beach City after a thrilling 3-1 (25-19, 20-25, 30-28, 25-15) victory over No. 4 El Camino College on Tuesday night at the ECC Gym Complex in Torrance, Calif.

Julian Zavala was electric for the Vikings (18-2) as he led all players with 24 kills on 41 attempts, making just two errors for a blistering .537 attacking percentage. 

As a team, the Vikings outhit the Warriors .312 to .192 and, aside from the second set, they attacked at a plus-.300 clip in the three sets they won.

Joseph Rocha (33) and Sean Nguyen combined for 57 of the team's 65 assists and Kyler Tufuga, the state-leader in digs per set (3.36) during the regular season, dove around for 21 digs on the night to lead all players. The Vikings defense as a whole shined with 60 digs.

Dylan Garcia, Travis Hannemann and Andrew White all tallied 12 kills for the Warriors with Vladimir Kubr adding 37 assists, seven digs and a team-high five blocks in the loss.

The match turned in an outstanding third set by both teams with the Vikings prevailing 30-28. The teams were tied 19 times in the third and traded the lead on five occasions. Neither team built lead greater than two points. Garcia and Hannemann led the Warriors with four kills apiece. Meanwhile, Zavala was outstanding again with six kills on 12 swings with just one error. He had plenty of help as Coby Prowse added five kills on nine swings and Geoffrey Mike had five kills on 11 swings.

The Warriors had the first chance to claim the set at 24-23 but Zavala hammered down his fifth kill of the frame to knot things up at 24-24. From that point on, the Vikings accumulated four set points with the Warriors thwarting three of them. Finally, the LBCC up 29-28, a swing from White sailed wide for the Warriors to clinch the set for the Vikings and give them a 2-1 lead.

It was pivotal as the Vikings used the momentum swing to clinch the match in the fourth. They dropped the first point of the set and then never trailed again. With an 11-7 lead, the Vikings scored six of the next nine points to build a 17-10 lead and they never looked back.

Mike sealed the deal for the Vikings with consecutive kills to cap a 5-0 closing run and give LBCC the match at 25-15.

The Vikings took the first set, never trailing in the frame. Zavala gave everyone a preview of what was coming in the opening frame, tallying nine kills on 13 swings with just one error (.361). Overall, the Vikings offense was firing on all cylinders in the first set with 19 kills on 36 attempts with just six errors. The defense also covered the floor well with 16 digs in the frame.

For the Warriors, Hannemann had four of the team's eight kills in the opener but the rest of the team combined for four kills on 18 swings with three errors. Despite the struggles on offense, the Warriors

The Warriors bounced back in the second in a big way, attacking at a .303 clip with 14 kills on 33 swings with just four errors. White led the charge with a perfect second set, going 6-for-6 on kills with no errors. Garcia added four kills and Hannemann had three in the set to get the Warriors knotted up with the Vikings at 1-1.

The Vikings will now head to their state-record 17th championship match since 1976. They will be in search of a repeat and the 11th state title in program history on Saturday night when they take on No. 2 Orange Coast at 7 p.m.

The final matches will be broadcast live via BAOSN. All ticket sales will be handled via HomeTown Ticketing. This is a cashless event. All sales are final and no refunds will be issued. The link to purchase tickets for Thursday can be found here.