Final CCCMVCA Poll sets the stage for postseason which begins on Friday

Previous polls l CCCMVCA release (PDF) l Championship bracket

IRVINE - The 2023 men’s volleyball regular season has come to a close and eight teams are ready for the start of the California Community College Athletic Association State Playoffs this week. All eight postseason teams finished in the top eight in the final California Community College Men’s Volleyball Coaches Association State Poll of the regular season.

More about the poll in a minute, but the bracket for the playoffs was released last weekend. Quarterfinal matches will be played this Friday, Apr. 21 at four sites with the higher team hosting. The top half of the bracket features the No. 1 team in the state, Long Beach City. The Vikings take on No. 8 Santa Monica. And No. 4 San Diego Mesa plays host to No. 5 Santa Barbara City. The winners from those two matches will move on to face off in the state semifinals on Thursday, Apr. 27 at El Camino College.

The bottom half of the bracket is headlined by the second and third-ranked teams in the state. No. 3 Orange Coast hosts No. 6 San Diego Mesa and No. 2 Irvine Valley will be at home against No. 7 Moorpark. Those two winners move on to the other semifinal on Apr. 27. The championship final is scheduled for Saturday, Apr. 29 at 7 p.m. at El Camino. Orange Coast defeated Long Beach City in three sets in last year’s title match at El Camino.

Long Beach City is on a roll this season. The Vikings have been at the top of the CCCMVCA State Poll for seven straight weeks. They have dropped just one match all year and that was to Irvine Valley in its second contest of the season on Feb. 4 in five sets.

Since then, the Vikings have captured 16 matches in a row, including sweeping their last 13 opponents. Long Beach City ran away with the Western State Conference title and is averaging 11.38 kills per set and hitting .351 as a team.

Sean Nguyen runs that offense with a state best 10.28 assists per set. Georgi Binev is hitting .378 and Cole Oliver has a .350 hitting percentage for LBCC.

Both Irvine Valley and Orange Coast have been in the top three of the rankings all season and were tied for second numerous times. There isn’t a lot that separates the Lasers and the Pirates. They each won a match on the other’s court and IVC and OCC shared the Orange Empire Conference title.

IVC is led by Demetre Gossett, who ranks third in the state in kills per set at 3.78 and Adam Schulte, who is third in digs per set in the state at 3.39. OCC is paced by Sebastian Lara, who is fifth in the state in kills per set (3.63), Landon Seymour, who is third in the state in assists per set (8.42) and Andrew Robbins, who paces the state in blocks per set (1.28). The fourth, fifth and sixth teams in this week’s poll have also all been close for the last several weeks.

San Diego Mesa and Miramar were tied for fourth this week. Miramar took the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference title after winning its final eight matches of the regular season. It was the Jets’ second conference title in a row. Parker Brown and Jack LeDuff each had 10 kills for Miramar as it defeated Palomar in four sets last Friday to clinch the title. Garrett Garcia leads the state in hitting percentage at .428. Miramar is the sixth seed in the playoffs.

Mesa will go into the playoffs as the No. 4 seed based on the criteria. Mesa finished second in its conference, defeated Irvine Valley in five sets and lost in five sets to Orange Coast in late February. TJ Letuligasenoa is one to keep an eye on as he averages 3.23 kills per set and ranks second in the state in hitting percentage at .388.

Santa Barbara, after a strong season, is a close sixth in the state poll and is the No. 5 seed in the playoffs. The Vaqueros tied with Moorpark for second in the Western State Conference at 8-4. SBCC won four of its final five matches of the season and the last three by sweep. Cole Richards is averaging 2.90 kills per set.

Moorpark is seventh in the poll and the seventh seed in the playoffs. The Raiders travel to No. 2 Irvine Valley on Friday, but went five sets with the Lasers at IVC earlier this season. Moorpark has won four straight heading into the postseason. The team hit .358 and got 12 kills from Michael Stahl in a big, three-set win over Santa Monica last Wednesday on the road.

Santa Monica is the No. 8 seed and eighth in the coaches poll. The Corsairs closed the regular season last Friday with a five-set victory over Antelope Valley at home.

Nate Davis had an incredible match for Santa Monica, finishing with 30 kills and 12 digs. Javier Castillo added 26 digs and Camden Higbee dished out 39 assists.

Rounding out the poll and just missing the playoffs this season were Santiago Canyon at No. 9 and Antelope Valley and El Camino tied at the 10^th spot.

(Brent Shaver, CCCMVCA)