OCC sweeps to state men’s volleyball title

WOODLAND HILLS – The Orange Coast College men’s volleyball team went 84 days and 20 matches without experiencing defeat, culminated by sweeping its way to its seventh state championship in 17 final appearances.

But, after the top-seeded Pirates dispatched No. 7-seeded El Camino, 25-21, 25-21, 25-21, in the California Community College Athletic Assn. championship match on Saturday at Los Angeles Pierce College, tournament MVP and OCC sophomore Jordan Hoppe said creativity may have rivaled hard work and ability as the Pirates’ biggest asset.

“We played with a chip on our shoulder each night, every night,” said Hoppe, who blasted a match-high 16 kills and hit .440 to help the Pirates hit .469 as a team. “It started from the beginning of the season. We knew that we wanted to win and we had to find something that was going to drive us to win, so we just had a chip.”

The Pirates won their final 20 matches to finish 21-1, with 14 of those victories coming in three sets. The Pirates earned OCC’s second title since 1994 (matching 2014), having lost in finals eight times since 1996.

“This means a lot more than just us,” said Hoppe, a sophomore who was academically ineligible for the state tournament last season, when the Pirates were upset by Long Beach in the title match. “This goes back to all those OCC teams and the years before us. This is for them. Tonight, we had a game plan, we executed to the best of our ability and that was enough.”

Sophomore J.B. Kam, bound for UC Irvine, had 11 kills and hit .529, while sophomore middle blocker Austin Marriott had six kills in seven swings (.857) and led the winners with three block assists.

Sophomore opposite Matt Ujkic had eight kills, while freshman middle blocker Bradley Hankus had four kills in six swings (.500), and was in on three blocks.

Freshman Zane Moothart hit .500 with five kills, while his cousin, Chase Moothart, a freshman libero, had a team-best two aces to join Hoppe and Kam on the all-tournament team.

Freshmen setters Colby Elder (26 assists) and Jacob Gilliam (19) triggered an efficient OCC attack that hit .615 in the clinching set.

Elder, Hoppe and Cole Aidnik all had five digs to lead OCC.

El Camino (12-8), which upset the Nos. 2 and 3 seeds while bidding for the school’s first state crown, hit .305 and led early in every set.

But OCC consistently pulled ahead, and continually denied the Warriors any momentum-building runs.

“The train has stopped,” OCC Coach Travis Turner said. “We were on a mission from the beginning. This team had the grit to do it and they weren’t going to lose. I’m so proud of these guys.

“Everybody did their job tonight and that’s how it has been all year. We talked a lot about trust, and it’s kind of corny, but these guys trusted each other and they trusted the coaching staff.”

Several OCC players displayed tears of joy following the match.

“It means a lot to us,” Kam said, “because we’ve been working so hard. It started the first day of school with a sour taste in our mouth from last year. We wanted to redeem ourselves. We kept fighting, practicing hard every day and it means a lot, because all the hard work paid off.”

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Twitter: @BarryFaulkner5