State championship MVP Naseri Tumanuvao celebrates following LBCC's 3-2 win over L.A. Pierce for the state title.

Men's Volleyball Archive

2006 STATE CHAMPIONS

April 29, 2006

Men’s Volleyball:

LBCC closes perfect season with state title win over L.A. Pierce

Irvine – Long Beach City College became just the second men’s volleyball team in state history to go undefeated during a season after beating Los Angeles Pierce in five games in the final match of California Community Colleges COA Men’s Volleyball Championship Presented by U.S. Bank at Irvine Valley College Saturday night.

Long Beach City defeated Pierce, 25-13, 23-25, 25-14, 23-25, 15-5, to end the season with a record of 18-0.

The only other team to go undefeated was this year’s runner-up, Los Angeles Pierce, which did it in 2001. The Brahmas were 18-0 in 2001.

“It feels great because from the get go a state championship was our goal,” Long Beach City Coach Randy Totorp said. “Once we got into practices we started to see that this was a special team and more was possible than just a state championship.

“The undefeated season still wasn’t a goal. We were taking it match by match and trying to improve all season long. In the process we kept it going and got (the undefeated season) done.”

This was the second time in three years that Long Beach City and Los Angeles Pierce met in the state final. Long Beach City also defeated Pierce in 2004 in five games (30-26, 30-26, 28-30, 30-32, 15-10).

The Vikings looked like they would make it a quick match early on Saturday night.

They led from the start of the first game and Brett Massetti ended it at with a kill.

But Pierce (13-6) battled back in game two, coming back from two points down late to steal the game on a kill by Chris Reyes.

Long Beach answered in the third game, again leading from the start and running away with a 25-14 win after Ryun Georges and Chris Ongay teamed up for a block on Pierce’s Reyes.

Pierce didn’t go quietly, however. The Brahmas won a close fourth game, 25-23.

But Pierce couldn’t carry that momentum over into the deciding game.

Long Beach City raced out to an 8-3 lead and later closed out the match and the title when setter Brian Hiapo stuff blocked a kill attempt by Reyes.

The Vikings had a balanced attack. Naseri Tumanuvao led with 14 kills and 10 digs. Sam Pech and Massetti each finished with 13 kills. Massetti also had nine blocks and Hiapo finished with 53 assists.

“The strength of it all was our depth,” Totorp said. “Naseri was big this weekend, but there has been nights when it has been Sam Pech, Ryun Georges or Derrick Seay. Throughout the season someone different has stepped up. It is a total tribute to the whole team and the hard work they all put in.”

Naseri was named the tournament’s most valuable player and Massetti and fellow middle blocker Chris Ongay were selected to the all-tournament team for the Vikings.

Pierce was led by Reyes, who had 19 kills. David Hunt added 17 kills and eight digs and Tommy Butler had seven kills and eight blocks for the Brahmas. Kyle Luongo finished with 47 assists.

Reyes and Hunt were named to the all-tournament team for Pierce.

Also making the all-tournament team were Santa Monica’s David Adams and Irvine Valley’s Eric Eastman.

The state title was Long Beach City’s fifth overall. Pierce leads all schools with eight titles.

- Story by Brent Shaver for the COA