Rustlers return to men's volleyball title match with sweep over Santa Barbara City

COSTA MESA – The Golden West College men's volleyball team took care of business in the semifinals of the 3C2A Men's Volleyball State Championships, rolling past Santa Barbara City College, 25-17, 27-25, 25-21, on Thursday night inside Orange Coast College's Peterson Gym.

With the win, the top-seeded Rustlers (22-2) will take on the lone team that has put a pair of losses on their ledger – the No. 3-seeded San Diego Mesa College Olympians – who upset No. 2-seeded OCC in four sets in the second semifinal match.

"For us tonight, it was about focusing on our defense and extending plays to our advantage," GWC head coach Nick Amado. "Santa Barbara has a ton of offensive weapons so we had to create as many opportunities as we could to get the ball back and score, whether that was with service pressure, or blocking or just floor defense."

Aiden Powell had 15 kills and just two errors on 32 attempts for the Rustlers, while Owen Banner added 11 kills with just two errors and Kai Rodriguez notched 10 kills with just one hitting error. As a team, GWC had just 12 hitting errors and a .394 hitting percentage to go along with a 55-38 kills edge on the Vaqueros (16-9).

Franky Fainga led SBCC with 12 kills, while Mykolas Petraitis knocked down six kills.

Both teams traded shots early in the first set before the Rustlers ripped off a 9-4 run to grab a 19-12 advantage. Santa Barbara could not find the answers as GWC kept the Vaqueros at bay the rest of the opening set. Finally, a SBCC attack error on match point gave the opening set to Golden West.

Santa Barbara bounced back and late in the second set, back-to-back errors by the Rustlers gave SBCC a set-point opportunity at 24-23. But Amado didn't call timeout to settle down his troops. Instead, he trusted his team to adjust, and the job done, which they did, thanks in large part to three big kills by Rodriguez and a kill by Powell to give the Rustlers a 27-25 win.

"I tell my boys all the time that I have their backs," Amado said about that crucial stage of the second set. "When I look at them and ask them if they want one (a timeout) and they say 'no' I'm going to trust them. Just like they trust me."

That momentum carried into the third set for the Rustlers as they used a couple of mini-runs to grab a 20-17 lead and from there, they never let Santa Barbara get any momentum moving forward. Finally, a kill by Powell ended the match and set the Rustlers into the championship game.

GWC will be looking for its first men's volleyball state championship for the first time since 2013. The year after that championship, Amado won a state championship as a standout player for Orange Coast College, so an opportunity for the young coach like this is something he's not taking for granted.

"It's super cool to be a part of programs that can create winning history," Amado said. "We won in 2014 and from there (OCC head coach Travis Turner) just took off and won like a million state championships. But here at Golden West where we haven't won one since 2013, it means a lot to me to build something from ground level, which we did. This year, we have the pieces to compete, so let's see what happens."

(Tony Altobelli, Orange Coast College Athletics)