Long Beach City remains unanimous No. 1 poll pick

Official CCCMVCA Release

IRVINE, Calif. - Long Beach City kept a firm grip on the top spot in the California Community College Men’s Volleyball Coaches Association Top 10 State Poll this week. The Vikings received first place votes from every coach that sent in a ballot. Long Beach City has been No. 1 for all five weeks of the 2018 poll.

Long Beach City moved its record to 10-0 with two more sweeps last week, winning at Antelope Valley, 25-20, 25-8, 25-14, on Wednesday and at Moorpark, 25-21, 25-15, 25-17, on Friday. LBCC has swept four opponents in a row. Eight of its 10 wins this season have come in three sets. Steven Rotter had 10 kills and hit .529 and Andrew Pearson finished with nine kills and four blocks in the team’s win at Moorpark. LBCC tops the state by far, hitting .360 as a team on the year.

The top five teams are the same this week as last, but in a slightly different order.

Orange Coast remained at No. 2 in the rankings with a record of 7-2 overall. After losing to Long Beach City in three sets on Feb. 14, the Pirates bounced back with two sweeps last week. Coast beat Miramar, 25-18, 25-18, 25-20, at home on Wednesday and then took down San Diego Mesa, 25-13, 25-11, 25-17, at home on Friday.

Four players had at least five kills for OCC in the win over Miramar, led by Kyle McCauley with seven kills.

Irvine Valley (5-1) won its lone match last week and stayed at No. 3 in the rankings. The Lasers won at Grossmont, 25-17, 25-19, 25-22, on Wednesday. Matt August, who leads the state in hitting percentage (.512) and blocks per set (2.00) ended with 16 kills and nine blocks. Sean Carroll and Patrick Furlong each added 11 kills for the Lasers.

Santa Monica moved up from fifth to fourth in the rankings The Corsairs, who have a record of 4-3, split matches last week. They fell at Moorpark, 25-20, 17-25, 23-25, 25-17, 20-18, in the match of the week on Wednesday at home. Andrew Damada had 23 kills and Hunter Douglas finished with 55 assists in the defeat for Santa Monica.

But Santa Monica came back with a 25-22, 25-23, 25-15 win at LA Pierce on Friday behind 14 kills by Vecas Lewin and eight kills and six aces by Dalmada.

Santa Barbara City dropped its first match of the season last week and slipped a spot in the poll to fifth. The Vaqueros swept LA Trade Tech, 25-23, 25-14, 25-20, at home on Wednesday, but then fell, 25-21, 25-22, 17-25, 25-23, on Friday at El Camino. Kyle Skinner had 20 kills, Haward Gomes finished with 18 kills and Adam Simonetti contributed 50 assists for Santa Barbara City in the loss at El Camino.

El Camino remained at No. 6, Fullerton stayed at No. 7 and Pierce remained at No. 8 this week. Golden West, which made its first appearance in the poll last week at 10^th, moved up another spot to No. 9 after earning sweeps over San Diego Mesa and Palomar last week. Joshua Kim had 26 kills on the week for the Rustlers and leads the state in total kills with 107. The full top 10 can be found below.

(Brent Shaver, Irvine Valley College)