OCC gets revenge

COSTA MESA — The Orange Coast College women’s volleyball team sent a message to the rest of the Orange Empire Conference Friday.

The new boss is the same as the old boss.

With the memory of the Oct. 11 loss to Golden West (12-4, 9-2 in conference) still fresh in the minds of the Pirates (17-1, 10-1), they would not be denied redemption. And the hosts made it look easy by sweeping the Rustlers, 30-25, 30-17, 30-28, at Orange Coast.

“Nobody wanted to lose to them again,” OCC sophomore Kiwi Winkler said. “When we played there, their fans were really mean to us and we wanted to beat them today.”

In the back-and-forth first game, the Pirates went up 1-0 when Chelsea Spadaro earned the first of her game-high 38 assists by setting up Jennifer Chiffer for the kill.

With both teams trading points, OCC took a 18-17 lead after Eva Johnson and Joanna Johnson recorded two consecutive blocks on Golden West’s Jana-Lee Mays.

Jacqi Reed’s kill to tie the game at 25-25 started a six-point rally to close out the first game and put the Pirates up 1-0 in the match.

“After the loss to them I sat the team down and told them that even though they will be judged by last year’s team, they have to find their own identity,” Pirates’ Coach Chuck Cutenese said.

In the previous meeting between the two teams, the Pirates weren’t ready for the size of the Rustlers and were only able to take one game.

This time Cutenese had a different plan.

“I had a couple of the guys [from the OCC men’s team] come in [Thursday] so they could try and hit against a bigger block,” Cutenese said. “The last time they weren’t ready for that size. This time they were prepared and knew what to expect.”

In the second game, Golden West struck first but OCC quickly tied it up when Winkler dropped it in front of the diving Leslie Ray.

“She came in ready to play,” Cutenese said of Winkler. “Her leadership is what really sets her apart from everyone else.”

Midway through the game, Chiffer’s kill in the face of two Golden West defenders put the Pirates ahead 10-9, a lead they never relinquished.

OCC stretched its lead to three points when Winkler got one of her 18 kills after Reed, who finished with nine kills, and Ashlee Moon made spectacular digs on a long rally to keep the point alive.

The Pirates continued to exact revenge on the team that snapped their 36-match win streak by winning the second game 30-17.

The Golden West defender had no chance at returning Winkler’s smash that put OCC up 2-0 in the match.

The Pirates took control of the third game early with two kills by Spadaro and another by Winkler.

Eva Johnson and Winkler gave OCC a five-point advantage when they combined on a block of Amy McMahon.

Golden West continued to fight and battled back to bring the score to 15-13.

That’s when Cutenese called a timeout.

“I didn’t like what I saw and I wanted to calm them down,” Cutenese said.

Winkler’s crosscourt kill to make the score 20-17 had Lindsay Heldberg tripping over herself as she tried to get to it.

With the game tied at 28-28, something had to give. The Pirates wanted the sweep and the Rustlers wanted to play some more.

Moon and Winkler made diving saves, giving Reed the chance at the kill and setting up match point for the Pirates.

Reed finished off match point as well with a kill in the face of 6-foot-4 Jen Putnam.