Vikings control Pirates’ ship

Bryce Alderton

Orange Coast College men’s volleyball players munched on pizza, wore

Hawaiian leis around their necks and listened to music, celebrating

the end to a season.

A much more vocal party, though, took place at the same time in

OCC’s Peterson Gymnasium Saturday for a team that hasn’t been this

far in more than a decade and saw its season extend one more match.

Visiting Long Beach denied Coast a shot to play for its sixth

state title with a 28-30, 30-28, 30-25, 21-30, 15-10 victory in a

Commission on Athletics state semifinal.

Freshman Jonathan Charette’s fourth block of the game sealed the

win and sent several Long Beach fans rushing onto the court to join

players huddled together in celebration.

“This is a huge win for us,” first-year Long Beach Coach Randy

Totorp said. “It’s been a long time since Long Beach has had this

type of season. The last time we reached a final was 1992 and the

last state championship was 1985.”

The Vikings (14-3, 9-1), champions of the Western States

Conference, finished 2-14 in the conference last season.

The state playoffs, shortened to a one-day, four-team draw because

of California’s budget cuts, are familiar territory for Coast (15-5,

7-3 in the Orange Empire Conference, good for second place), which

has reached the state title match in five of OCC Coach Chuck

Cutenese’s 12 seasons.

But the Vikings, who lost to the Pirates in five games in the

regular season, used their athleticism to thwart any hopes Coast had

of reaching the state final.

“Long Beach is the most physically gifted team with the most

athletic players,” Cutenese said. “They have some weapons. If someone

was off, someone else stepped up.”

The Vikings hustled to track down numerous balls, diving near the

sidelines to keep possession alive.

Coast stayed alive with a sound fourth game, but couldn’t keep one

of its biggest weapons on the floor in the pivotal fifth game.

“Losing [sophomore outside hitter Jon Larson] hurt us. It took

away one more person who could have swung the ball.”

Larson finished with 11 kills and three blocks and was one of

Coast’s main hitting options before exiting the match.

Long Beach seemed to feed off its fans’ cheers, scoring four

straight points to take a 6-4 in the fifth game.

OCC sophomore Kaimana Kamalani tied the fifth game, 8-8, with one

of his three blocks, but the Vikings again scored four straight

points to pull away.

“You can’t afford to allow three or four points on one rotation in

[the fifth game],” Cutenese said. “The unforced errors hurt us. We

were so clean and sharp in games one and four.”

Coast took a 21-15 lead in game two, but committed four straight

unforced errors, allowing Long Beach to pull even, 23-23. Referees

called a lift and two hits on OCC during that span, drawing Cutenese

out of his chair with a confused look on his face. Coast’s only lead

in the third game came at 1-0 as Long Beach’s 6-foot-7 freshman

middle blocker Larry Taylor used his stature to pound seven of his 16

kills.

“It took [Taylor] the first game to get loose because he is not at

100%, but his performance helped out big time,” Totorp said.

Taylor had help from sophomore outside hitter Malu Seiuli tallied

15 kills, 15 digs and five blocks.

Kamalani slammed a match-high 21 kills to go with 10 digs while

fellow sophomore outside hitter Poyer Poia tallied 16 kills, five

digs and three service aces.

Sophomore setter Mike Murphy amassed 62 assists and four blocks

while Matt Skolnik led Coast with 15 digs. Uriah Seui tallied 10

kills and seven blocks.

Poia noticed a different Long Beach lineup than the one in the

teams’ prior meeting, but said Coast’s errors proved the downfall.

“They switched one of their outside hitters to middle blocker,”

Poia said. “We gave them free points. We gave them the match.”