Orange Coast Dunks Golden West in Volleyball

Orange Coast turned its Orange Empire Conference men’s volleyball match with visiting Golden West into a pool party Saturday.

Minutes after beating three-time defending state champion Golden West in five games, the Pirates hustled Coach Chuck Cutenese into the pool.

The reason for the Pirates’ glee was a 13-15, 16-14, 15-8, 5-15, 15-12 victory that put them a match in front of Rustlers with two left in conference play.

Some players went diving as others sought dry assistant coaches to dunk.

“The water was warm but the air is cold,” Cutenese said, “It’s a good win for us late in the season.”

Things were even colder for Rustler Coach Mike D’Alessandro, who watched the Pirates celebrate. “It really [upsets me] that they are celebrating like they won the Super Bowl when they were lucky to take a match from us,” he said.

The two teams could meet again in the state tournament, which is April 24-25 at Irvine Valley.

Orange Coast took an early 7-4 lead in the fifth game, in which rally scoring was used.

But the Rustlers got as close as 12-11 and 13-12. The Pirates took a 14-12 lead on a kill by Mark Pozsgai, who then combined with Ivan Mercer for a block to win it.

Pozsgai had 24 kills, Darin McBain had 20 kills and Josh Richardson had 19 for the Pirates. Scott Lane had 28 for the Rustlers.