Long Beach Wins but Pierce Makes It a Long Night

The last time they played, it was nearly over before it started.

Long Beach City College defeated Pierce in three relatively easy men’s volleyball games at Long Beach.

But the Vikings had to struggle to defeat the Brahmas in the rematch.

Pierce took Long Beach to five games before suffering a 15-8, 15-9, 5-15, 5-15, 15-11 defeat in a South Coast Conference match Friday night at Pierce.

Long Beach (12-3, 10-0 in conference play) clinched the South Coast Conference title and earned a berth in the state community college final four that starts April 28 at Irvine Valley College.

Pierce (12-4, 8-2), which finished second in the conference, will play host to Orange Coast on April 25 for a berth in the final four.

After taking the first two games, the Vikings appeared to be on their way to another three-game victory.

“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy because we were in enemy territory and they always play us tough here,” said Coach Art Garcia of Long Beach.

The Brahmas responded with impressive victories in the third and fourth games behind opposite hitter Lance Walker.

Walker, a sophomore, finished with 31 kills and 10 digs.

Ryan Murdock and Yoni Shalev had 13 kills each for Pierce and Eddie Stanislawski had 15 digs.

“In the first two games, we didn’t play like we were capable of,” Coach Greg Vernovage said. “In the last three games, we really battled them.”

It wasn’t until Long Beach scored the final two points of the fifth game, including a kill by Alan Lee that deflected off Walker to end the match, that the Vikings could celebrate.

Outside hitter Alex Cervantes had 20 kills and 11 digs for Long Beach. Malu Seiuli and Brennan Velasco added 14 kills each.