The top-ranked Long Beach City College beach volleyball team (15-5, 6-0) was very busy during their last week of the regular season, and host the Conference Championships at Granada Beach on Friday morning.
LBCC faced Long Beach State, Utah and CSU Bakersfield in exhibition matches on Saturday after beating El Camino 4-1 to close out the conference regular season on Friday.
Men’s Volleyball
It was supposed to be a clash of titans, the No. 1 team in the state hosting the No. 4 team in the state in both squads’ regular season finale, with a conference championship on the line. Instead? It was just another routine win for Long Beach City College’s men’s volleyball team last weekend, as they took down El Camino in four sets, 25-21, 25-15, 23-25, 25-18.
The win closes the regular season for the Vikings with an undefeated slate of 19-0, and gives LBCC a third consecutive conference championship. Despite the accomplishment, the Vikings weren’t patting themselves on the back too much, which shouldn’t come as a surprise given that the team doesn’t bother to update its conference title banner in the gym.
“Now that the regular season is over, we’re 0-0,” Vikings coach Jonathan Charette said. “We have to win every match to keep going.”
They won the showdown with El Camino emphatically. The Vikings controlled the first and second sets and dropped a tight third, before rebounding to lead the fourth wire to wire.
The match was played before a crowd of more than 200, with extra seating brought into the volleyball gym to accommodate them. They were treated to a high-flying show, with setter Melbe Perez doling out 41 assists while guiding the Vikings to a .409 attack.
Steven Rotter had 17 kills on .433 hitting backed up by 11 from Romi Pourrat and 10 from Victor Villareal, who hit .615.
“I just love playing with these guys,” said Villareal, who kept his team smiling all match either with powerful kills on the court or with funny dances and faces while on the bench.
“You can tell sometimes guys are more excited on the bench than on the court,” he said. “We all really root for each other, we all love playing on this team — I’m sad we don’t have that much more time for each other.”
Up next for the Vikings are the state playoffs, where they’re three wins away from yet another state title — it would be the program’s 10th. They’ll open with their final home game, hosting San Diego Miramar on Friday at 6 p.m. Miramar (11-7) is the No. 8 seed in the tournament — if LBCC wins Friday they’ll advance to next week’s state Final Four at Fullerton College.
The first match, on April 26 would be against the winner of No. 4 LA Pierce and No. 5 Fullerton. The match everyone is hoping for would be a state final on Saturday, April 28, between No. 1 Long Beach and No. 2 Orange Coast — OCC’s only two losses all season were tight contests with the Vikings.
Softball
The No. 18 Vikings defeated No. 10 Cerritos 8-4 last Thursday. LBCC (21-14, 4-5) has three games left in the regular season before the regionals start in May.
LBCC first baseman Julia Juarez gave her team the lead at Cerritos, and hit the game-winning three-run home run in the third. Sophomore pitcher Alissa Cienfuegos earned the win by only allowing one hit while striking out six batters in six innings. Alijah Vega, Raven Agapay and Samantha Ontiveros had the other Vikings RBIs.
After hosting El Camino on Tuesday, LBCC travels to L.A. Harbor today and hosts Southwestern at 3:30 p.m. on Friday.
Baseball
LBCC (18-16, 9-7) snapped a three-game losing streak and salvaged a 7-3 win in a conference series against El Camino on Saturday. The Vikings are only 6-9 at home this season.
Freshman and Lakewood High alum Bryan Sandoval earned his second win while allowing eight hits and three runs. He struck out three. Freshman Garrett Rennie (4-1) took home his fourth save with three scoreless innings.
Third baseman Reese Berberet had two home runs and a single in the victory. His 16th and 17th home runs of the season makes him the current leader in California for home runs. He also leads the South Coast-South Conference with 41 RBIs.
After visiting Cerritos on Tuesday, LBCC hosts the Falcons at 2:30 p.m. today.
Track & Field
Both men’s and women’s teams competed at the Cerritos College Invitational on Friday. Sophomore Sherrice Pelle highlighted the day by taking second place in the 100 meter hurdles with a personal-best time of 14.79, which ranks second in the 100 meter hurdles in conference. In field action, freshman Mark Neal Jr. was third place in the long jump, and sophomore Jarrod Amyx was third in the shot put.
LBCC will be back in action at the South Coast Conference Prelims at El Camino College on Tuesday.
