ROUNDUP : Victory Sends Pierce to State Volleyball Final

The Pierce College men’s volleyball team swept two-time defending state champion Orange Coast, 16-14, 15-8, 15-6, in a state semifinal match Friday night at Palomar College.

The victory moves Pierce (16-3) into the final against Long Beach tonight at 7:30 at Palomar.

Rob Beard recorded 24 kills and teammate Matt Knepper added 17 for the Brahmas, who won the Southern regional championship Tuesday over Irvine Valley to advance to the state tournament.

Lee Bradford had five blocks for Pierce.

MEN’S TENNIS

Western State Conference tournament--Top-seeded Ashot Smbatyan of Glendale College, and Kasper Nielsen and Vanja Nadali of Pierce advanced to the individual semifinals, which will be held today at Ventura College. Four Pierce players--Nielsen, Nadali, Roger Vig and Johnson Chen--reached the quarterfinals and in doing so qualified for next week’s Southern California regional tournament in Santa Barbara.

Nadali and Nielsen also advanced to today’s doubles finals and will meet Dominic Habibi and Jeff Spalinger of Santa Barbara. The Pierce doubles teams of Nielsen-Nadali, Chen-Miki Bruan, and Vig-Rajeev Datt also qualified for the Southern California regional, as did the Glendale team of Smbatyan-Sam Torres and the Ventura team of Juan Rosales and Mike Schumacher.

WOMEN’S TENNIS

Western State Conference tournament--Pierce’s Mai-Chi Tieu advanced in singles and doubles competition at Santa Barbara City College. In the quarterfinals of singles play, Tieu defeated Shannon Martinoff of Santa Barbara City, 7-5, 6-0. She will play Gina Trzaska of Bakersfield City in the semifinals today at 9 a.m.

Tieu and doubles partner Liza Tan won two matches to advance to the final. Tieu and Tan defeated Mo Patton and Janine Nesseth of Santa Barbara City, 6-2, 1-6, 7-6 (7-5) in the quarterfinals, then defeated Candice Savalas and Linda Dorson of Santa Monica, 6-2, 6-1, in the semifinals.

They face Trzaska and Kim Batten of Bakersfield City in the final today at 1 p.m.

HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL

Channel Islands 5, Westlake 2--George Macias slugged a bases-loaded triple and Angel Aragon provided three innings of hitless relief for host Channel Islands in a Marmonte League game.

Channel Islands (18-4, 7-3 in league play) scored two runs on a balk and a throwing error. The Raiders received four strong innings from starter Alex Zavala (4-1) and then handed the ball to Aragon, who faced just 10 batters.

Thousand Oaks 7, Agoura 6--Matt Elam had three hits to lead Thousand Oaks in a Marmonte League game at Agoura.

With the score tied, 6-6, in the seventh, Elam singled with one out. On a hit-and-run play, Kirk Pederson singled to right and Elam toured the bases when the Agoura right fielder bobbled the ball.

Jeff Olin, Clint Harris and Pederson each had two hits for Thousand Oaks (4-15-1, 3-7). Thousand Oaks outfielder Jamal Nichols ripped a solo homer in the fifth.

Kevin Sass homered, Brad Wright tripled and Ed Gillis doubled for Agoura (7-12, 3-7).

Newbury Park 15, Camarillo 6--Host Camarillo committed eight errors, leading to 13 unearned runs in a Marmonte League game. Steve Acosta had three hits, including a three-run homer, and drove in six runs, and David Lamb added two hits, three runs batted in and three runs for Newbury Park (11-9, 6-4), which collected 11 hits off four Camarillo pitchers.

Bryant Fick went the distance for Newbury Park, allowing nine singles and striking out four.

Littlerock 12, Ontario Christian 2--Jorge Pacheco had two hits, including a home run, to lead Littlerock in a nonleague game at Ontario Christian.

Calabasas 16, Nordhoff 8--Mark Warshaw had three hits to lead host Calabasas in a Frontier League game.

Josh Morton had two hits and has hit safely in 17 consecutive games for Calabasas (7-10, 3-6).

Colin Fields also had three hits for Calabasas and drove in two runs. Mehul Taylor was two for three, scored three runs and stole three bases for the Coyotes.

Paraclete 13, Tehachapi 12 (nine innings)--Drew Gonzales singled and scored on Frank Stanley’s two-out double off the center-field fence in the ninth inning for host Paraclete (9-5, 6-0) in a Desert-Inyo (Large) League game.

HIGH SCHOOL SOFTBALL

Calabasas 4, Nordhoff 0--Amy Kane of Calabasas singled home two runs for a 2-0 lead in the fifth.