Surprised Pirates upended in five

COSTA MESA -- Despite cruising to a 2-0 led without hardly

breaking a sweat, highly regarded Orange Coast College, which was a

finalist at State a year ago, dropped the final three games of the

match and suffered its first-ever defeat to Club Spikers, 30-20,

30-20, 28-30, 27-30, 12-15, Friday afternoon on the Pirates’ campus.

The Bucs had no trouble in the early going, gaining the edge in

the opening stages of each of the opening two games to take a 2-0

lead. Outside hitters Kyle Martin and Doug Lewis had no trouble

finding the gaps in the Spikers’ defense, while middle blockers

Setiam Allah and Levi Luster set up stifling blocks.

With the seemingly comfortable lead, Coach Chuck Cutenese went to

his bench to get as many new faces some game action. But instead of

gaining a three-game sweep and a second victory of the season, the

Pirates lost their edge and dropped the next two games as Josh

Richardson and OCC product Fernando Sable carved up the Coast

defense.

Despite a 3-1 jump in Game 5, the Pirates never regained the

explosiveness they showed in the opening two games. Club Spikers ran

off eight straight points.

The Pirates showed a brief bit of life as Martin fired a pair of

kills and libero Kaione Scott provided a dig that ended up in a

point, but a service error and kill provided an insurmountable 14-9

Spikers lead.

Martin led the Pirates with 14 kills, while Lewis, Luster and

Kaimana Kamalani each had 10 kills. Luster led the blocking game with

eight, while Lewis tallied six and Dane Gilliam had five. David Doxey

dished out 20 assists to go along with 15 from Mike Murphy.

Coast (1-1) is at the Long Beach CC Tournament today.