Orange Coast falls to Pierce in five

For the fourth consecutive year, L.A. Pierce College has thwarted

Orange Coast’s chance for men’s volleyball glory.

It happened again Friday, as the top-ranked Brahmas defeated the

Pirates, 30-27, 30-28, 26-30, 24-30, 11-15, in a state semifinal

match at Long Beach City College, which lasted 2 1/2 hours.

Despite the loss, OCC Coach Chuck Cutenese applauded the effort of

his team.

“It was one of the best matches since I’ve been [at Coast],”

Cutenese said. “I was pleased to see how far we got with the state

we’ve been in.”

Injuries plagued Coast throughout the season, but the Pirates

didn’t give up, as evidenced by their five-game loss Friday.

Sophomore outside hitter Poyer Poia tallied a team-high 27 kills

followed by 13 from Kaimana Kamalani.

Setter Mike Murphy had 51 assists and four service aces to go with

Levi Luster’s four solo and two assisted blocks. Kaione Scott amassed

17 digs.

OCC (17-6) rallied from a 26-22 deficit in Game 2 to win and take

a 2-0 lead.

But Pierce showed why it hass won the past three state

championships by settling in and forcing Coast to go the distance,

something Cutenese -- in his 12th year with the Pirates -- didn’t

want to do.

“With the condition we were in, we had to beat them within three

or four games,” Cutenese said. “They were stronger and healthier. We

had some opportunities that we didn’t take advantage of and lost our

composure in Game 3, which I can’t explain why.”

Poia played through tendinitis in his knees for the past month

while Kamalani suffered from a sore back.

“We had some good sideouts in Game 3 and if we had served

aggressively, we could have done some damage in the early in Game 4.

They took the lead off an unforced error by us in the fifth game and

got an early lead. It is hard to come back when you’re playing only

to 15.”

Sophomore Setiam Allah entered the middle of Game 3 and gave OCC a

boost with nine kills and had only one hitting error during stints in

the final two games.