Men's volleyball poll shows status quo through most of the rankings

IRVINE - Orange Coast continues to dominate the California Community College Men’s Volleyball Coaches Association State Poll.

OCC is on top for the third straight week and has received every first-place vote all three weeks.

The Pirates have won seven straight matches since their only loss of the season – a five-set defeat at No. 2 Long Beach City on Feb. 16.

This past week, Orange Coast had just one match, sweeping Santiago Canyon, 25-23, 25-14, 25-13, at home. Will Anderson had 12 kills and only one error for the Pirates. DiAeris McRaven added eight kills, while Zack Weston was a perfect 7 for 7 in his hitting attempts for the night. Grayson King contributed 32 assists and five aces.

Long Beach City stayed on the heels of OCC with a bounce-back victory.

The Vikings dropped just their second match of the season (a four-set defeat to No. 4 El Camino the week before, but responded with a 12, 21, 17 sweep over No. 7 Santa Monica on Wednesday.

Erik Hernandez led the team with 11 kills, and a .526 kill percentage. Hernandez currently leads the conference, averaging 4.57 kills per set.

Sean Nguyen totaled 18 assists and had three digs for the Vikings. Nguyen also sits on the top spot on the conference leaderboard, averaging 9.12 assists per set.

Irvine Valley stays at No. 3 for the third straight week. The Lasers swept Golden West on the road Wednesday and then No. 8 Fullerton at home on Friday.

In the 25-16, 25-18, 25-14 win over Fullerton, Griffin Book led the way with nine kills and hit .667 with seven block assists, JT Demure ended with seven kills, hit .300 and had four digs and four blocks and Josh Beymer recorded six kills and nine blocks for IVC.

El Camino had a solid week and remained at No. 4. The Warriors swept No. 10 Santa Barbara City and No. 6 Moorpark on the road.

And Miramar is ranked No. 5 once again. The Jets had sweeps over Grossmont and Palomar at home.

For Miramar, Jack LeDuff recorded 25 kills and James McMillan had 58 assists in the two wins.

The rest of the top 10 was similar to last week with Moorpark at sixth, Santa Monica seventh and Fullerton at No. 8. Santiago Canyon jumped back in the poll at No. 9 after defeating Fullerton last Wednesday. And Santa Barbara City rounds out the top 10.

One of the featured matches this week sees No. 6 Santa Monica traveling to No. 3 Irvine Valley on Wednesday.

(Brent Shaver, CCCMVCA)