The Long Beach City College men’s volleyball team suffered a 3-0 non-conference loss to visiting Orange Coast College on Friday at LBCC. Long Beach lost the match by scores of 30-25, 30-20, and 30-28.

 

The loss snapped the Vikings’ 16-game winning streak dating back to last year’s state championship season and dropped their record to 3-1 overall.

 

In game one, Long Beach led 7-5 before OCC rallied to tie it. After going up 8-7, the Pirates never looked back.

 

After cruising to the 30-20 win in game two, the match got interesting in the third.

 

The Vikings stormed out to a 14-9 lead and looked poised to extend the match up late 20-18. With the score tied at 20, OCC won six of the next eight points to jump ahead 26-22.

 

Long Beach made on last push. A pair of kills by freshman Randy Preval and a kill from freshman Matt Vaughan tied the score 28-28. But two straight attack errors by the Vikings gave Orange Coast the game three win and the sweep.

 

Freshman Kris Johnson led LBCC with 11 kills to go with two blocks. Preval and freshman Parker Del Rey added 10 kills. Sophomore Troy Crutchfield had a team-best 12 digs, and freshman Tyler Salcedo led the Vikings with 28 assists.

 

For Orange Coast (3-0), Brad Hemmerling totaled a match-high 15 kills. Harrison Carroll and Troy Tomasello added 13 kills, while Paul Leon had 39 assists.

 

Long Beach returns to action on Wednesday (Feb. 17) when it hosts Grossmont College in a 6 p.m. non-conference match. 

Reports From LBCC