The men's volleyball team defeated Irvine Valley College last Wednesday, last year's CCCAA state semifinalist. On Friday, the Olympians set their focus on a bigger prize, Orange Coast College, last season's CCCAA state champions. The Olympians lost in a dramatic five-set thriller 26-28, 30-28, 28-26, 19-25, 15-8. Despite the loss, splitting the week against two of the top teams in the state is nothing short of remarkable for the men's program. 

Only in his 4th season at the helm, head coach David Proffitt has put the entire state on notice — the men's volleyball program has arrived.

GAME RECAP FROM COACH PROFFITT:

Game 1: Usually the team that sets the tone at the beginning of a match dictates and controls the momentum. I always remind the guys to get a good start. We talked about being "tuned in" during warmups so that we are not using the first 10 points to get our bearings while our opponent jumps out to a lead. Unfortunately, we were not "tuned in" and OCC jumped out to a 5-point lead to start the game. After an early timeout, the guys closed the gap to tie the game at 8-8. From there we built a 16-11 lead with some great defense and blocking. This game would be a barn burner tied at 22-22, 23-23, 24-24, 25-25, 26-26 before OCC closed the game out on a couple of unforced errors.

Game 2: We played from behind for most of the game, but managed to hold on to OCC to tie at 24-24. This was similar to the first set, with the back and forth scoring. This time it was OCC that made a couple late errors to lose the second set 30-28.

Game 3: With the sets even at 1-1 there was a new energy in the huddle. We were able come out and build a 15-9 lead midway through the game before a called timeout.  OCC slowly closed the gap with some great attacking. They closed the gap to 23-23, the third straight set to go extra points. We were able to close out the game 28-26 with a kill by Richard Aguiniga to finish it out. 

Austin Kinnear had 4 kills on 7 attempts in set 3
Richard had 11 assists. 

Game 4: I thought that we were in a great place early as we ran out to an 8-4 lead. I knew that OCC was not going to go away easily though. They have great program at OCC and have been extremely good for years now. As expected, OCC started chipping away at the lead and eventually tied the game at 15-15. OCC ended up winning the set 19-25. 

Game 5: It was close early, but OCC was able to open up a lead that we just couldn't overcome in the shortened 5th game. 

Standouts:
Austin Kinnear: 19 kills/5 err. on 41 att. = .341 hitting eff. 
Richard Aguiniga: 44 assists
Isaack Grant: 8 kills/3 err. on 24 att. = .208.  Digs-22