Pirates walk the plank

Joseph Boo

COSTA MESA - You knew Orange Coast College’s women’s volleyball

team was in for one dilly of a time when Golden West walked into the

Pirates’ gymnasium for an Orange Empire Conference match Wednesday night.

The six-time state champions lived up to their reputation against OCC

(10-9, 5-6), sweeping the Pirates, 15-2, 15-8, 15-6.

This is the second time Golden West (16-0, 11-0) defeated the Pirates

this year. On a slightly longer streak, this is the 57th consecutive win

for the Rustlers, surpassing Joe DiMaggio in streak-setting.

“We lost for two reasons,” OCC Coach Chuck Cutenese said. “One, (Golden

West) is a very good team. Two, we were really flat. We can’t play like

that against a good team.”

The really good team made OCC pay for its lackluster play in the first

game, winning 15-2. Rustler freshman and Newport Harbor High product

Marissa Cothran racked up 18 of her 40 assists in that first game,

feeding the ball to Lori Daedelow, who led everybody with 14 kills, and

Julie Renfrow.

With normal Pirates’ setter Missy Jamison out with an injury, Tina Nguyen

stepped in for her first start, and she notched 27 assists.

“Tina doesn’t have a lot of game experience,” Cutenese said. “That had a

factor in the match.”

The Pirates played a lot better in the second game. After going down,

7-3, OCC closed it to 7-6 behind defense. Susie Packard, Becky Baumgarten

and Beth Waterman each contributed key kills. Waterman, another Newport

Harbor product, also got seven digs in that game to key OCC’s defense.

But Golden West’s Rebecca Larson got a block and the Rustlers adjusted to

put their size to a full advantage. They outscored OCC, 6-2, to win the

second game.

By then, the match was a foregone conclusion. The Pirates played

gallantly in the third game, with Packard and Waterman each getting four

kills and Nguyen getting 10 assists. But Cothran, Daedelow and the rest

of the Rustlers were too much, and Golden West won, 15-6.

Packard led OCC with 13 kills, and Waterman had 10 kills to go along with

13 digs. Baumgarten also had 10 kills and two blocks for the Pirates.

“Our outside hitters turned in a solid performance,” Cutenese said. “Our

setting needs to steady out, but our outside hitters did a nice job.”

OCC ends the season with two more conference matches, against Fullerton,

which are Friday, and next week on the road against Riverside.