Report by LBSU

The defending state champion Long Beach City College men’s volleyball team cruised to a three-game sweep of visiting Moorpark College in a Western State Conference showdown on Friday night at LBCC.

The Vikings won the match by scores of 30-24, 30-26, and 30-28 to remain undefeated in conference play at 7-0. Their 10^th straight win improved the Vikings to 13-1 overall.

Second-place Moorpark dropped to 4-2 in the WSC (9-4 overall). Long Beach leads Moorpark by 2 ½ games with three left to play and needs just one more win to secure its sixth conference championship in seven seasons.

After cruising to easy wins in set one and two, the Vikings had to come-from-behind in the third to complete the sweep.

Moorpark led 21-17 and looked poised to extend the match to a fourth set.

But after a Moorpark service error by Tyler Peterson, the Vikings rallied for five straight points behind the serving of freshman Matt Taylor to jump ahead 22-21.

Long Beach jumped ahead 28-24 and never looked back. Sophomore Torand Cheltenham’s kill on match-point secured the win.

Freshman Randy Preval led LBCC with 14 kills and four blocks. Freshman Chris Austin posted 13 kills and 26 assists. Freshman Matt Taylor chipped in with eight kills and seven digs, while sophomore Troy Crutchfield led the Vikings with 13 digs.

Trevor Willenberg led Moorpark with 15 kills, Josh Howley totaled 14 kills, and Adam Quinn had 44 assists.

Long Beach gets its first chance to wrap up the conference championship on Tuesday (Mar. 31) when it hosts El Camino College at 6 p.m.