OCC in state title match again

FRESNO — The second day of the California Community Colleges Commission on Athletics State Volleyball Tournament had a little bit of everything for the Orange Coast College women’s volleyball team.

In the end, the Pirates earned a return trip to the state championship match, slated for today at 1 p.m. OCC will take on today’s winner of Sacramento City-L.A. Pierce

“Comparing two volleyball teams is like comparing children — you just can’t do that,” OCC Coach Chuck Cutenese said in a press release. “Both have different strengths and weaknesses. Last year, we stayed pretty much under the radar and we got there rather easy. This year, the bull’s eye has been on this group’s back all season and it took some time for us to develop and trust each other. They had to live up to last year’s (state championship) reputation.”

The Pirates overcame seven match points in the morning match against San Joaquin Delta and escaped with a 30-21, 25-30, 24-30, 36-34, 15-8 win.

That momentum apparently carried into the afternoon matchup with Sacramento City, where the Pirates posted a 30-22, 31-29, 23-30, 30-15 victory in the championship semifinals.

Against San Joaquin Delta, the Pirates trailed two games to one and 29-27 in the fourth game. A kill by Chelsea Spadaro cut the deficit to 29-28 and after Delta hit an easy return over the net, two-time All-American Kiwi Winkler made the Mustangs pay with a kill that evened the score at 29.

Delta, ranked No. 1 in California, managed to gain the upper hand five straight times, but OCC answered right back to even the score each time. Trailing 34-33, OCC watched Delta nearly win the match when the line judge ruled a return on the line. However, the head referee overruled the call and gave the Pirates the point, turning a Mustangs’ celebration into a 34-34 tie.

“When that call was made, Delta began celebrating, but after it was called correctly, you could feel the momentum come to us,” Winkler said.

Less than a minute later, a long Delta return, followed by a Winkler kill gave the Pirates the stunning win in the fourth game.

“I was just so proud of how we were able to keep our composure in that fourth game,” Cutenese said. “We did a better job applying pressure with our serves late in the match and our setter (Chelsea Spadaro - 61 assists) did an excellent job of setting the ball to the right people at the right time.”

Winkler finished the morning match with 33 kills, while freshman Jacqi Reed added 20. Up the middle, Eva Johnson (nine kills), Jennifer Chiffer (nine kills) and Spadaro (eight kills) helped give the Pirates depth on offense.

Against Sacramento City, the Pirates (23-2) limited their mistakes and forced the Panthers (26-4) into their own miscues.

In the first game, Reed’s jump-serves helped spark an 8-0 run, turning a 21-21 tie into a 29-21 OCC lead.

In the second game, the Pirates fell victim to a bit of a mental lapse and watched the Panthers jump out to leads of 10-3, 16-9 and 22-14.

A 9-2 run, highlighted by a kill and ace by Reed and three costly SCC errors, helped OCC get to within one at 24-23, forcing a Panther timeout.

Trailing 26-24, OCC again took advantage of untimely Panther errors to score five of the next six points for a 29-27 lead. After the Panthers rallied to tie the score at 29, OCC watched a Panther serve go into the net, then ended the game with a Reed kill for a 31-29 win in the second game.

Sacramento City, which posted wins over San Diego Mesa and second-ranked El Camino to reach the championship semifinals, took care of business in the third game, but OCC regrouped, took a 16-8 lead in the fourth game and never looked back.

Winkler and Reed each had 18 kills against the Panthers. Johnson added seven kills up the middle. Defensively, Ashlee Moon posted 20 digs, while Winkler added 17.

Spadaro had 42 assists, 103 combined for the two matches.

Both of the No. 1 seeds — Delta and El Camino — combined to go 0-4 on Saturday, costing them both a chance for a state title.