The Irvine Valley men's volleyball team's 2022 season came to a close on Thursday night in the semifinals of the California Community Athletic Association State Championship at El Camino.
No. 2 Orange Coast College defeated No. 3 Irvine Valley 3-0 (25-22, 25-20, 25-15). It was the third time that OCC beat the Lasers this season.
The Pirates' (19-1) offense dominated as they attacked at a .284 clip compared to a .013 percentage for the Lasers (17-5).
Will Anderson led the way for the Pirates with 10 kills on 21 swings with three errors. Cash Adamsen added nine kills while Josh Friedman (18) and Grayson Kling (12) combined to dish out 30 of the team's 32 assists.
For the Lasers, freshman outside hitter Jaden Churchill paced the squad with seven kills with freshman outside hitter Colin Chillingworth and freshman opposite Griffin Book adding five apiece in the loss. Freshman setter Andrew Perez had 14 assists and freshman middle blocker Josh Beymer added two blocks.
And freshman libero Adam Schulte had another solid match with a match-high nine digs.
The first set proved to be crucial as the Pirates overcame a six-point deficit to claim the frame. The Lasers jumped out to a 7-2 advantage and led 12-6 before the Pirates mounted their comeback. They scored four straight points to cut the deficit to two. The big run came when the Lasers led, 16-14, as OCC scored eight of the next nine points to take a 22-17 advantage and never looked back.
The Pirates got five kills from Adamsen and three from Zach Weston in the first set. The teams were tied three times and exchanged the lead twice. The Lasers committed seven attacking errors and posted a rough .097 attack percentage, which allowed the Pirates to mount the comeback and take the opening frame.
The Pirates would never trail the rest of the way.
In the second set, OCC outhit the Lasers .323 to .097. Anderson paced the offense with four kills in the second and Sam Warren three kills without an error on four swings. Churchill did his best for the Lasers, posting five kills in the set on 10 swings, but the rest of the team combined to tally two kills on 12 swings with six attack errors.
In the third frame, the teams were tied twice but the Pirates never fell behind. Once again, the Lasers offense sputtered as they hit at a negative clip with six kills and seven errors on 25 swings.
The Pirates will now head to the championship match on Saturday night against No. 1 Long Beach City. It will be OCC's 18th trip to the title match in program history. They will be in search of their eighth state title and first since 2017.
Courtesy of Rafael Guerrero, CCCSIA
