Golden West Rolls Past Pierce Into Title Match

If there were any questions whether the Golden West men’s volleyball team was ready to defend its state title, the Rustlers answered them emphatically Friday.

Golden West only needed a little more than an hour to defeat Los Angeles Pierce, 15-11, 15-3, 15-2, in a state tournament semifinal at Irvine Valley College.

Sophomore Scott Lane, a 6-foot-6 middle blocker, had 15 kills and 10 blocks for Golden West (17-2), which advanced to tonight’s 7:30 final to face Santa Barbara (14-5), which defeated Orange Coast in five games.

Golden West, the three-time defending state champion, avenged one of its two losses. The Rustlers lost a five-game match at Pierce (15-4) this season. Golden West’s other loss came against Orange Coast.

Friday, Golden West looked sharp and never let Pierce recover from a sluggish start. The Rustlers took advantage of seven Pierce hitting errors in Game 1 to take a 10-2 lead before closing it out.

Setter Casey Jennings’ jump serve helped Golden West take a 7-0 lead in Game 2, and the Rustlers scored 13 consecutive points to help them win Game 3 and the match.

“We’re pretty focused right now,” Golden West Coach Mike D’Alessandro said.

That includes Jennings, who had 14 assists in the first game, but moved to outside hitter for the final two.

“Some injuries and ineligibility problems have made us a little thin at outside hitter right now,” D’Alessandro said. “We needed a little more firepower and he’s pretty good out there.”

Jennings had eight kills, three blocks and two aces.

Dragan Ognjanovic had 10 kills to lead Pierce, which struggled and had 18 hitting errors.

In the other semifinal:

Santa Barbara 3, Orange Coast 2--Nathan Beck had 33 kills to help Santa Barbara rally to win in a match that took nearly three hours, 7-15, 8-15, 17-15, 16-14, 15-12.

Orange Coast (20-2) had one match point in Game 3, two more in Game 4, then also squandered a 12-9 lead in the rally-scoring fifth game.

Santa Barbara scored six consecutive points to close out the match. Ben Koski (27 kills) had one kill to make it 12-10. After OCC’s Josh Richardson (35 kills, 12 blocks) netted a spike from the back row, Santa Barbara blocked for three more points before OCC’s Darin McBain netted a tip at match point.