Pirates stun Long Beach to retain men's volleyball state crown

TORRANCE -- For the second year in a row, the Orange Coast College men's volleyball team has returned to the top of the mountain as the Pirates upset top-seeded Long Beach City in five sets to retain the state crown at the California Community College Athletic Association Men's Volleyball State Championships on Saturday at El Camino College.

It was a bit of a different path to the state title this year as the third-seeded Pirates (18-3) entered Saturday's matchup with the powerhouse Vikings (19-2) as a rare underdog, but head coach Travis Turner and his young, but talented group of athletes would not be denied the program's ninth state championship and the school's 98th state championship in its 75-year history.

"This team likes to grind and has worked as hard as any team I've had at OCC," Turner said. "I'm just super stoked for them. I love Orange Coast College. I'm kinda corny about it, but I truly love the OCC community. It's a great place to work and an even better place to get an education. The fact that both basketball coaches and their teams were at the match tonight reinforces my belief in the culture of OCC. We are so proud to be Pirates."

State Tournament MVP Sebastian Lara earned his individual hardware for the Pirates with 23 kills and just three errors on 54 attempts (.370 hitting percentage) to go along with five digs, three blocks and two aces. Myles Henderson added 11 kills and libero-turned-slugger Hide Nakamura moved to the outside and ripped eight kills to go along with eight digs. 

The idea of moving the UCLA-bound Nakamura to outside hitter proved to be a key wrinkle in the game plan that perhaps the Vikings weren't ready for. "Putting Hide on the outside allowed us to have our three best passers on the court for the entire match," Turner said. "We knew we had to do something different to beat them and we had been considering that lineup all year."

Setter Brock Henderson made the most of his 6-foot, 9-inch frame by dishing out 32 assists as well has knocking down six kills (no errors) and five total blocks."

"I don't think we could have asked for a better match ... it was absolutely an incredible experience," Brock Henderson said. "Winning that match felt like everything was worth it. All of the days we didn't want to be at practice at 6 a.m., all of the days we were tired and sore, but continued to work hard ... it meant something and we have something to show for it now and for the rest of our lives."

The opening set was a perfect indicator of how even both teams were, heading into the championship match as the Pirates and Vikings traded big hit after big hit to a 15-15 stalemate through the early portion. In a match this even, it only takes a few "mini-runs" to make a difference and for the Pirates, that came in the form of a 4-0 outburst that put Coast in front, 19-15. A pair of attack errors by the Vikings, a Lara kill and an ace served up by Trent Douphner put OCC in a four-point cushion.

The lead grew to five at 21-16 before the Vikings battled back with four points in a row to trim OCC's lead to 21-20, forcing Turner into a timeout. Long Beach pushed back to even the set at 23, but OCC maintained its composure and regained a 24-23 lead, courtesy of a LBCC net violation.

On set point, a great dig from Lara on an LBCC kill attempt was followed by a Nakamura kill to give the Pirates the crucial opening-set win, 25-23. "Sebastian played hard all five sets," Turner said. "He definitely was the difference for us in this match."

Not only did Coast grab a 1-0 lead in the match, it stopped LBCC's incredible streak of 48 set wins in a row, dating all the way back to Feb. 15 when Coast took the opening set on the Vikings in a nonconference matchup. 

Long Beach quickly brushed off the early loss and went back to work, winning the next two sets to grab a 2-1 lead in the match. Matthew Pennala led the Vikings with 23 kills, while Georgi Binev added 14 kills. 

In the fourth set, Coast regained its championship form and went on a 18-10 run to carry a 20-13 advantage on the Vikings and the Pirates cruised from there to even the match and force a fifth-and-deciding set for the state championship.

"I honestly think the turning point was we just didn't want to lose," Brock Henderson said. "The guy next to me has worked his (expletive) off too hard to lose this match and that's kid of how we were all thinking during the whole match, but especially the final two sets. All these parents traveled too far to watch us go home crying in tears of disappointment. We honestly were doing it for each other and it ended up working out perfectly."

Long Beach jumped out to a 2-0 lead in fifth, but Lara helped keep OCC close early with an early kill to make it 2-1 in the race-to-15 final set. Leading 4-3, the Pirates showed their talent in all areas of the sports. A big kill attempt by the Vikings was dug up perfectly by Nakamura, who, later, fed a pass attempt to Lara, who eventually would bank his kill attempt off a Viking blocker to put OCC up, 5-3.

At 6-4, a Viking attempt went off an OCC block and was heading to the floor, when Brock Henderson reached back and sent it back up in the air, where Lara ripped a back-row attempt passed a stunned Vikings defense, capping off a 6-1 run to put Coast up 7-4 and forcing LBCC into a timeout.

Long Beach got back to within a point, but the Pirates kept answering the Vikings' threats. At 9-7, a big block from the combination of Elgin Liu and Brock Henderson pushed OCC's lead back up to three at 10-7.

(Assistant Coaches) Vince Rodriguez and Matt Skolnik did all of the game-planning," Turner said. "We don't win this match without them running our block defense the way we did."

Pennala helped get Long Beach back to within a point at 10-9 and on the following exchange, Coast could only send over a modest return which could have given the Vikings a chance to tie things up, but a costly net violation on LBCC gave the point to the Pirates at 11-9.

With OCC clinging to a 12-11 advantage, the point of the fifth set came when OCC came up with two big blocks to prevent a set-tying kill. Then, with the point still going, Nakamura came up huge with a backrow dig, and when a Lara attempt was dug and passed too far by the Vikings, he slammed back over to give OCC a huge 13-11 advantage.

Both teams traded points to make it 14-12, setting up match point for the Pirates. There, a big serve from Lara was sent back over the net by the Vikings, where Myles Henderson slammed down the mistake, ending the match and giving the Pirates the state championship for the second year in a row. 

"As for what this season has meant to me, it means the absolute world to me," Brock Henderson said. "With my injury (earlier in the season), I was just struggling in general, both mentally and physically, but Travis and all the guys gave me the confidence to get back to playing how I usually do and just being able to perform for them. This season especially means the most to me because this was the last time I got to set my little bro and that was the most important thing to me. The fact that we went home as champions together, I couldn't have asked for a better ending."

Added Turner ... "This is the best win in my 16 years at OCC. This one will stick with me."