From reports by LBCC’s Chris Ruiz

Not all is as it seems—it may have gone down as a three-game sweep, but it wasn’t easy as Long Beach City College defeated Santa Monica College in Thursday’s opening semifinal match of the 2009 CCCAA Men’s Volleyball Championship in Irvine.  Long Beach won the match by scores of 30-28, 30-27, and 30-20 to improve to 17-1 this season.

Santa Monica opened the match playing well and led game one by scores of 15-10 and 20-15. But Long Beach finally took its first lead at 24-23 and never looked back in taking the opener.  SMC jumped out to a big lead in game two and once again, LBCC rallied for the win. Trailing 16-10, the Vikings rolled to eight straight points behind the serving of freshman Devon Taylor to go up 18-16.

“Devon was the key in game two,” said head coach Randy Totorp. “He won game two for us, no doubt about it. They had to adjust to his serving which allowed us to block and play back on defense.”

With the confidence of taking games one and two, LBCC cruised to the 30-20 win in game three to complete the sweep, their 14th of the season.

Sophomore Antwain Aguillard led LBCC with 15 kills and four blocks, while sophomore Casey Bennett had 14 kills and nine digs. Sophomore Andrew Marques posted 47 assists.

For Santa Monica (14-6), sophomore RJ Storm-Larsen had a team-high 11 kills. Sophomore Quinn Lukens totaled 10 kills and six digs while sophomore Matt Atkins had 34 assists.

LBCC returns to the state championship final on Saturday at 7 p.m. after a one-year absence. Long Beach will face Golden West College as it looks to capture the program’s seventh state title and third under Totorp.

“We have a lot of third-year guys that saw us lose in the final in 2007,” said Totorp. “This team wants a state championship.”

In their lone meeting this season, Long Beach swept Golden West at home on February 4.