April 24, 2008
Men’s Volleyball:
LBCC season ends with state semifinal loss to Irvine Valley
Irvine Valley College sophomore outside hitter Peter Johnson posted match highs with 20 kills and nine digs to lead IVC to a three-game sweep of Long Beach City College in Thursday’s second semifinal match of the 2008 California Community College Athletic Association Men's Volleyball Championship in Irvine.
Irvine Valley won the match by scores of 30-20, 30-26, and 30-27 to advance to Saturday’s championship final.
After rolling to the 30-20 opening-game win, Irvine Valley had to overcome late Long Beach rallies in the second and third games to pull out the sweep.
Long Beach used a 6-2 scoring run to take a 14-11 lead in game two. The lead changed several times over the next points before the score was tied at 23. Irvine Valley rolled to five straight points to jump ahead 28-23.
But Long Beach wouldn’t quit. LBCC got as close as 29-26 before freshman setter Phil Younglove’s kill sealed the game two win.
And it was more of the same in game three.
With the score tied at 12, IVC got eight straight points behind the serving of freshman middle blocker Nick Martus to surge to a 20-12 advantage. Long Beach slowly began to chip away and cut IVC’s lead to 27-25.
But a pair of kills by Martus and Johnson down the stretched sealed the match win and second straight trip to the state finals.
“This was a match up of two really good teams,” said Irvine Valley head coach Tom Pestolesi. “We were fortunate to score more points than them. It got scary towards the end there. Our ball control broke down. Long Beach is such a physical team. We knew we couldn’t get caught up playing their style of volleyball.”
For IVC (17-2), freshman opposite Reese Haine posted 14 kills and three aces. Martus added seven kills and seven blocks and Younglove paced the team with 50 assists.
Freshman outside hitter Casey Bennett led Long Beach (14-5) with 10 kills and one ace. Bennett was named to the All-State Tournament team.
Freshman middle blocker Antwain Aguillard added four kills and four blocks and freshman setter Andrew Marques posted 16 assists and two blocks.
Long Beach made its fourth state championship final four appearance in five years under head coach Randy Totorp.
"Overall, I thought we had a good season," said Totorp. "We didn't achieve all of our goals this year, but I think our freshmen learned tonight what it takes to win a state title. They'll be ready next year."
Irvine Valley looks to capture its third state championship on Saturday when it faces Orange Coast College at 7 p.m. at IVC.
2008 ALL-STATE TOURNAMENT TEAM
Peter Johnson, Irvine Valley – MVP
Reese Haine, Irvine Valley
Kaleo Baxter, Irvine Valley
Kevin Welch, Orange Coast
Andrew Pizula, Orange Coast
Casey Bennett, Long Beach
Collin Williamson, Santa Monica
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