Lane, Jennings Dominate as Golden West Wins Title

Golden West won its fourth consecutive state men’s volleyball championship Saturday at Irvine Valley College. And the Rustlers made it look fairly easy.

After Golden West won the first two games convincingly, it needed to erase a six-point deficit in the third game to defeat Santa Barbara in the final, 15-7, 15-5, 15-13.

Golden West’s Casey Jennings, who had 23 kills and five blocks, and Scott Lane, who had 16 kills, four blocks and seven aces, were named tournament co-MVPs.

“That was one of our better matches of the year,” Lane said. “This is pretty awesome.”

Golden West is the only college to win four consecutive state titles, the last three coming under Coach Mike D’Alessandro.

“I think physically, we always had what it takes to win the state title again,” D’Alessandro said. “We just put it together mentally. To finish on a note like this makes it all worth while.”

Although Jennings was the starting setter most of the season, D’Alessandro moved him to outside hitter at the start of Saturday’s match. The Rustler offense didn’t miss a beat with Everett Matthews (57 assists) quarterbacking the attack.

Todd Clevenger (12 kills) and all-tournament selection Brian Fox (10 kills) helped balance Golden West’s attack.

Golden West (18-2) looked sharp in the first two games, consistently getting side outs, taking advantage of the few mistakes Santa Barbara (14-6) made to take big leads.

All-tournament outside hitter Ben Koski had nine of his 20 kills in the third game to help Santa Barbara take a 10-4 lead in the third game.

But Golden West rallied for 10 consecutive points. Santa Barbara battled back, erasing five match points before Koski missed a spike wide.

In Orange Empire Conference baseball:

Riverside 10, Santa Ana 6--Jaime Leal, who homered for the fifth consecutive game, has 22 for first-place Riverside (31-9, 15-6).

Joe Urban tied the score, 6-6, with a three-run double in the seventh for Santa Ana (28-12, 12-10).

Saddleback 17, Orange Coast 4--Kirk Bolling hit his 13th homer, doubled, walked three times and scored four times for Saddleback (29-9, 15-7). The Gauchos scored eight times in the sixth to take a 12-3 lead.

In the South Coast Conference men’s swimming championship:

Golden West takes title--Albert Sutanto set a national record in the 200 butterfly (1 minute 47.91 seconds) for the Rustlers.

In the South Coast Conference women’s swimming championship:

Golden West wins--The Rustlers’ 200 freestyle relay team of Lisa Saenz, Emily Hagen, Susan Lehman and anchor Becky Levine, set a conference record (1:40.76).