El Camino sweeps Miramar; Gets ready to host Long Beach, Irvine Valley and Orange Coast in men's volleyball semis

(Courtesy El Camino College Athletics)
(Courtesy El Camino College Athletics)
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April 16, 2022

CCCAA MEN'S VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS
Quarterfinals
 (1) Long Beach City 3, (8) San Diego Mesa 0
(2) Orange Coast 3, (7) Moorpark 0
(3) Irvine Valley 3, (6) Santa Monica 0
(4) El Camino 3, (5) San Diego Miramar 0

TORRANCE - No. 4 El Camino College scored a 3-0 (27-25, 25-21, 25-22) sweep over No. 5 San Diego Miramar on Saturday night in the California Community College Athletics Association Men's Volleyball State Championship Quarterfinals at the ECC Gym Complex.

The Warriors (14-5) advance to the final four of the CCCAA State Championships for the fourth time since 2014. They advanced to the championship match in 2014 and 2017 but finished second each time. In 2019, the fell to Orange Coast in the semifinals.

On Saturday night, the Warriors capitalized on a number of Jets (14-4) miscues to score the victory. The Warriors attacked at just a .207 percentage as a team but they got plenty of help from their opponents as the Jets committed 25 atacking errors and 20 service errors.

The Warriors also dominated at the net as five players recorded multiple blocks. Gunnar Brydon led the way with five blocks while Travis Hannemann (one solo) and Spencer Isley each added four. Vladimir Kubr and Dylan Garcia each had three blocks in the victory.

The turning point in the match came in the first set as the Jets had three set points, holding a 24-21 lead. The Warriors got a kill from Hannemann to eliminate one of the set points and then three consecutive blocks set by Hannemann and Brydon pulled the Warriors ahead at 25-24.

LeDuff recorded a kill to draw the Jets even but a service error on the ensuing serve by James McMillan gave the Warriors their second set point. The Warriors would take the set on another attacking error by LeDuff to put ECC ahead 1-0 after being on the brink of dropping the opening set.

The Warriors never looked back, taking the next two sets to complete the sweep and advance to Thursday's CCCAA State Championship Semifinals against No. 1 seed Long Beach, who defeated No. 8 San Diego Mesa in three sets on Friday night.

It will be the third meeting of the season between the two squads. The Warriors downed the Vikings in four sets on March 11 at ECC but fell in three sets at Long Beach on April 12.

First serve for that match is set for 7 p.m. at the ECC Gym Complex. The first semifinal will feature No. 2 Orange Coast against No. 3 Irvine Valley at 5 p.m. at the ECC Gym Complex. Both of those teams will also be facing off for the third time this season with OCC winning the first two matches.

El Camino College will be hosting the 2022 CCCAA State Championships on Thursday, April 21 and Saturday, April 23.

Admission is as follows:

General Admission: $12
Students, Staff, Faculty, Seniors 60-older and Children 12-under: $8

The CCCAA State Championships are a cashless event. Tickets and game programs can be purchased via HomeTown Ticketing. All sales are final and no refunds will be issued.

The link to purchase tickets and gameday programs for Thursday's semifinals can be purchased at the following link:

https://cccaa.hometownticketing.com/embed/all  

The 2022 CCCAA State Championships will also be live streamed for free via Bay Area Online Sports Network (BAOSN). The matches may be viewed at the following link:

https://baosn.tv/

(Rafael Guerrero, El Camino College Athletics)

Irvine Valley men's volleyball team is back in the final four at CCCAA state

IRVINE - The Irvine Valley men's volleyball team played one of its most complete matches of the season to start the California Community College Athletic Association Playoffs.

The Lasers, seeded third, swept No. 6 Santa Monica for the second time this season.

And it was a dominant performance by Irvine Valley.

The Lasers won, 25-16, 25-8, 25-18, to improve their record to 17-4 overall on the year.

The IVC squad will face Orange Empire Conference rival and the No. 2 seed in the state tournament Orange Coast next Thursday at El Camino at 5 p.m.

Orange Coast won the OEC title and is on a 13-match win streak.

But Saturday night was all about IVC's control at the net. The Lasers hit a season-best .539 as a team for the match and had just four hitting errors in the contest.

IVC hit .722 as a team in the second set win.

Leading the way was freshman outside hitter Karl Stenlund, who finished with 14 kills and hit .591. 

Freshman outside hitter Trevor Weinert hit .833 with 10 kills in 12 attempts and freshman opposite Jaden Churchill added another 10 kills and hit .500.

IVC freshman setter Andrew Perez ran the IVC offense and collected 41 assists on the night.

Freshman libero Adam Schulte and freshman middle blocker Josh Beymer were the backbone of the defensive effort. Schulte had nine digs and Beymer, who leads the state in blocks, had one solo block and four assists to go along with five kills in seven attempts for IVC.

Irvine Valley moves on to the CCCAA State semifinals next Thursday at 5 p.m. against No. 2-ranked Orange Coast.

OCC swept No. 7 Moorpark Saturday night.

More details soon about how to secure access to tickets for the matches at El Camino.

(Brent Shaver, Irvine Valley Athletics)