Despite winning three straight matches, including two teams last week, the Irvine Valley men's volleyball team remained at No. 8 in the California Community College Men's Volleyball Coaches Association Top 10 State Poll.
Many of the teams stayed the same, but the surprise was a few of the squads that didn't move up.
Long Beach City (8-1) remained on top for the third straight week. The Vikings have won six straight matches and earned two big Western State Conference victories last week, winning at El Camino in four sets and then beating Moorpark in four sets at home.
Arsene Ponsin went off in the two matches, finishing with 48 kills to lead Long Beach. Setter Joseph Rocha did his thing as well with 98 assists and 21 digs in the two matches. Uriel Batista added 33 kills in the two contests for Long Beach City, which gets away from conference action to host Santiago Canyon on Wednesday night in one of the top match-ups of the week.
El Camino (5-3) came in at No. 2 again this week and was joined by Orange Coast, which went from third up to a tie for second. El Camino dropped its first two matches in the WSC last week, falling to Long Beach at home in four sets and then also losing to Santa Barbara City at home in a close match all the way around (16-14 in the fifth).
And the Warriors have another tough one on Wednesday night in a battle at Moorpark.
Orange Coast (4-4) stopped a four-match skid last week with a pair of wins against Pacific Coast Athletic Conference teams. The Pirates beat Grossmont in four sets at home and then swept San Diego Mesa at home. In the 25-16, 26-24, 25-9 win over Mesa on Friday, OCC had 12 different players at least a kill and another 11 with one or more digs. Orange Coast hit .369 as a team. The Pirates continue their outings with the PCAC this week with matches at Palomar and Miramar.
Santa Barbara City (5-2) was the interesting team/story this week. The Vaqueros sat at No. 4 a week ago, won two more matches last week and are currently on a five-contest win streak, but remained at fourth in the poll. SBCC won at El Camino in five sets last Friday, but the more impressive victory might have been its sweep at Moorpark last Wednesday. In the 27-25, 25-19, 25-20 win, the Vaqueros had a nice balance with 12 kills from Calvin Sanborn, nine kills from Trent Lingruen and eight kills from Keoni Thiim. Kyle Merchen continued keeping the Vaqueros' offense on point with 35 assists. Next up for Santa Barbara City is LA Pierce at home on Wednesday.
Rounding out the top five teams this week is Miramar, which comes in fifth for the second week in a row. The Jets look to be the top team in the PCAC with a 5-1 record and wins over No. 4 Santa Barbara City, No. 7 Santiago Canyon and No. 8 Irvine Valley already this season.
Miramar takes on Irvine Valley again Wednesday night – this time at home.
Irvine Valley came in at No. 8. The Lasers defeated No. 6 Moorpark in five sets at home two weeks ago and then swept both Palomar and San Diego Mesa at home last week to improve to 5-5 overall. In the 25-22, 25-18, 25-16 win over Mesa last Friday, sophomore opposite Demetre Gossett, who is one of the leaders in the state in total kills, finished with nine to pace IVC. He also had four aces.
Freshman outside hitter Josh Beymer finished with eight kills, and freshman outside hitter Jake Johnson and freshman middle blocker Aaman Soma each added five kills.
Sophomore setter Jimi Wilson contributed 33 assists and four digs, sophomore outside hitter Max Wise had nine digs and sophomore libero Red Ramos chipped in six digs for IVC.
The full top 10 poll can be viewed below.
CCCMVCA State Top 10
1. Long Beach City (8-1)
T2. El Camino (5-3)
T2. Orange Coast (4-4)
4. Santa Barbara City (5-2)
5. Miramar (5-1)
6. Moorpark (6-3)
7. Santiago Canyon (6-2)
8. Irvine Valley (5-5)
9. Golden West (5-4)
10. Fullerton (4-5)
