Pirates prevail in four advance to state final

WOODLAND HILLS — It’s not from whence you came that matters so much in community college volleyball as where you’ve been.

The Orange Coast College men’s team, which personifies this notion, is now one win away from a state championship after a 23-25, 25-21, 25-18, 26-24 triumph over defending champion Santa Monica in the semifinals of the California Community College Athletic Assn. Championship on Thursday at Los Angeles Pierce College.

OCC Coach Travis Turner said the teams still competing at this stage of the season are usually those with the most seasoned lineups. The Pirates surely have seasoning, as well as a little spice, of the variety that can turn big moments into winning memories.

The Pirates (20-3), whose top two hitters are from Hawaii and Brazil, also rely on a setter who transferred from rival Irvine Valley College. Added to the mix Thursday was a Northern California transplant who was filling in for a missing starter.

Round it all out with a few Orange County products and the Pirates are riding a 12-match winning streak into the battle for their seventh state crown, their third in three seasons.

OCC, which lost to Santa Monica in the 2015 semifinals after topping the Corsairs in the 2014 state title match, will face Long Beach (19-2) for the crown on Saturday at 7 at Pierce College.

But OCC’s postseason opener (after a first-round bye) was not without tumult, as well as what Turner said was the biggest adversity his team has faced all season.

Freshman opposite Jordan Hoppe, a second-team All-Pacific Coast Conference performer, was ruled academically ineligible earlier this week, Turner said, opening the door for Wyatt Henson, a freshman from Placer, Calif. to crack the lineup.

Henson produced 11 kills to tie conference Co-MVPs Adrian Faitalia and Gianluca Grasso for team-high honors. Henson hit .389 and pounded a kill that created match point.

Faitalia, a 6-foot-3 sophomore outside hitter from Hawaii, hit .391 with just two errors, had a team-best five block assists, and shared the team lead six digs. Faitalia, the lone returning starter, drove a kill through two blockers with the Pirates facing set point in Game 4. He also teamed with freshman middle blocker Matthew Ujkic to produce a block that pulled OCC even, 23-23, in the deciding game.

Brazilian-born Grasso, a 6-2 outside hitter who has committed to play next season at USC, had 11 kills two ace serves and four digs.

Sophomore setter Jake Adams, who by virtue of Turner’s aversion to transfers had to fight his way into the starting lineup from the No. 3 spot on the depth chart (behind two returners), distributed 36 assists and led the squad with three aces. His work at the service line included a five-point run in the second set that turned a 20-17 deficit into a 22-20 lead.

“The last thing I want is some kid who transfers to come in and start and I told [Adams] that from Day 1,” Turner said. “I told him if he wanted to take a chance and come here, he probably wouldn’t play much. He said ‘I’m doing it anyway, coach.’ He waited it out and the other two guys gave him an opportunity. He has been in there ever since.”

Adams, who triggered the IVC offense as a freshman, said he simply believed in himself.

“I was motivated by earning the starting spot and winning state with a great group of guys,” Adams said of his conviction to override Turner’s pessimism. “This was the group of guys I wanted to win state with and I believed Travis was going to bring us there. I [vowed] to work my butt off to do that. If I didn’t start, I was going to be a guy who helps out the team.”

Also helping defeat Santa Monica were Ujkic (six kills and four block assists), freshman middle blocker Will Donald (four block assists, two kills and one ace) and sophomore libero and Newport Harbor High product Max Gamboa (six digs).

Santa Monica helped out by committing 34 hitting errors and missing 17 serves. The Corsairs finished with a .119 hitting percentage (128 points worse than OCC). The Corsairs hit .061 in Game 4, in which OCC hit .192.

Both teams squandered 18-15 leads to lose the first two sets. OCC dominated the third set and surged at the end to overcome a late deficit in a seesaw fourth game.

“I just thought we played with some guts when we weren’t playing great and just kind of battled through that second game,” Turner said. “If we had lost that one, it probably would have been a whole different match.

“We’re not the smoothest ball-control team, but we scored some points when we had to. It was more our kind of match.”