Men’s volleyball: Pirates zap Lasers

Tony Altobelli

COSTA MESA - The Orange Coast College men’s volleyball team took

the “un” out of unbeaten Irvine Valley College Friday night.

In a battle of Orange Empire Conference kingpins, the Pirates easily

bowled over the visiting Lasers, 25-20, 25-21, 25-15, in just over 60

minutes.

“This was our best match of the night, by far,” OCC Coach Chuck

Cutenese said. “I was worried because we hadn’t been playing too well,

but we were still winning. Sometimes bad habits can form from that.

Irvine Valley is still trying to find their rotation, so tonight, we were

one step ahead of him. That won’t be the case the next time we play

them.”

Jeff Taylor led the Pirates (8-0, 3-0 in conference) with 12 kills,

while B.J. Lightvoet (Costa Mesa High) and Soren Schneider each added

eight.

Setter Nick Ptaschinski sparked the offense with 37 assists and nine

blocks, while libero Ed Chun came through with a career-high 17 digs.

“Everyone got involved tonight and that’s very hard to defend,”

Cutenese said. “Nick’s setting gave us consistency in our offense, while

Ed gave us stability on defense.”

OCC jumped out to a 13-9 lead in Game 1 and never relinquished its

advantage. IVC (5-2, 3-1) got as close as 22-20, but three straight

points wrapped the game up for the Pirates.

The Lasers jumped out in front in Game 2, 16-13, before a 7-4 OCC run

tied the game at 20-20.

From there, Orange Coast gained three points off of IVC errors and

scored five of the game’s final six points.

Both teams traded points early in Game 3 before OCC’s R.J. King

sparked a 6-1 run with three kills and a block. “Having R.J. play that

well off the bench was a huge lift for us,” Cutenese said.

The Lasers could never recover as OCC’s confidence reached an

season-high. Lightvoet ended the match with an emphatic spike straight

down from the rafters to cap of the night.

The Pirates host Golden West Wednesday night at 7.