Orange Coast College

REPEAT COMPLETE: PIRATES SUCCESSFULLY DEFEND STATE TITLE!!!

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

FRESNO - It was only fitting the last play happened the way it did for the Orange Coast College women's volleyball team.

A perfect pass by the school's all-time dig leader Ashlee Moon, a perfect set by the one of the best setters in school history Chelsea Spadaro and a perfect spike by the school's all-time kills leader Kiwi Winkler, wrapping up Coast's 30-24, 30-21, 30-19 win over L.A. Pierce on Sunday at the California Community Colleges Commission on Athletics State Volleyball Championship, giving OCC it's second straight women's volleyball state title.

"A big sigh of relief for us," OCC coach Chuck Cutenese said after his team wrapped up the 86th state title in OCC history. "It all started with our sophomore leadership and as the season went on, our freshmen stepped up and made some tremendous controbutions."

Two-time All-American Kiwi Winkler added the moniker "Two-time State MVP" with a 16-kill, eight dig performance, ending her brilliant OCC career as a two-time state champion.

"When I hit that last shot, I thought to myself, 'it's over' and for a second, I was sad," Winkler said. "Our team has improved so much throughout this season. Our blocking has been outstanding, especially late in the season."

OCC wraps up the season with a 25-2 record, giving the sophomore seven of Winkler, Moon, Joanna Johnson, Jennifer Chiffer, Angela Roberts, Kissa Kent and Eva Johnson a career mark of 51-2, two tournament titles, two Orange Empire Conference titles and two state titles including eight straight wins in the tourney.

"I've nicknamed them The Magnificant Seven for the type of hard work, effort and dedication they've given me and the school the past two years," Cutenese said.

"To do what they've done the past two years, winning back-to-back state titles, they've left a legacy with this program that will never be forgotten."

While the sophomores have ended their careers the right way, the freshmen corps, including outside hitter Jacqi Reed (game-high 17 kills, 11 digs) and Spadaro (36 assists), are more than ready to keep the winning tradition alive.

"It came down to heart and we knew as a team what it was going to take for us to reach this level," Reed said. "As a team, we all meshed well and we all believed that we could do it."

As far as Sunday's action goes, the title game was merely a formality for the Pirates as they faced a L.A. Pierce squad running on fumes after playing five matches in the past 48 hours, including a five-game marathon against Sacramento City just minutes before taking on Coast.

"We were trying to do the nearly-impossible against a great team like Coast," L.A. Pierce coach Nabil Mardini said. "Fatigue was definitely a factor. You can be mentally strong, but if you don't have the legs underneath you, it's hard to do what you want to do out there.

"OCC is an outstanding team. They set the ball great and they have the best outside hitters I've seen all season long."

The Brahamas (27-5) hung tough in Game 1 and trailed 21-19 before four straight unforced errors pushed OCC's lead up to 25-19. Led by the play of Ashley Lugo-Brown (16 kills), Pierce got back to within three at 27-24 before OCC used a net violation, a Reed kill and a block by Chiffer and Spadaro to take the next three points for a Game 1 win.

Pierce took the early lead in Game 2, 10-5, before another batch of Brahma errors sparked an 8-1 run, giving OCC the lead for good. Holding a 20-18 lead, the Pirates took control of things with a 9-1 run to grab a two-game lead on the match.

With the gas tank nearing "empty" for the Brahmas, OCC took control of the third game with a 10-1 run for an 18-8 lead.

Winkler, who finished the tournament with 96 kills in the tournament, kept hitting winner after winner down the stretch.

On defense Moon led the way with 14 digs, 71 for the tournament. In the middle, Eva Johnson led all players with a 1.38 blocks-per-game average.

"I'm looking forward to next year, but for now, I'm going to enjoy this one for quite a while," Cutenese said. "It's been a great season and it's one I won't soon forget."

DAY 2

FRESNO - The second day of the California Community Colleges Commission on Athletics State Volleyball Tournament had a little bit of everything for the Orange Coast College women's volleyball team.

More importantly, what Saturday had the most of was wins for the Pirates as they earned a return trip to the state championship match.

"Comparing two volleyball teams is like comparing children -- you just can't do that," OCC head coach Chuck Cutenese said. "Both have different strengths and weaknesses. Last year, we stayed pretty much under the radar and we got there rather easy. This year, the bull's eye has been on this group's back all season and it took some time for us to develop and trust each other. They had to live up to last year's (state championship) reputation."

It was an unbelievable day of volleyball as the Pirates overcame seven match points in the morning match against San Joaquin Delta and escaped with a 30-21, 25-30, 24-30, 36-34, 15-8 win.

That momentum carried into the afternoon matchup with Sacramento City, where the Pirates posted a 30-22, 31-29, 23-30, 30-15 victory in the championship semifinals.

Against San Joaquin Delta, the Pirates trailed two games to one and 29-27 in Game 4 when the game, the match and the season changed for the better.

A kill by Chelsea Spadaro cut the deficit to 29-28 and after Delta hit an easy return over the net, two-time All-American Kiwi Winkler made the Mustangs pay with a kill that evened the score at 29.

Delta (25-3 after today's matches), ranked No. 1 in California, managed to gain the upper hand five straight times, but OCC answered right back to even the score each time.

Trailing 34-33, OCC watched a Delta win the match when the line judge ruled a return on the line. However, the head referee overruled the call and gave the Pirates the point, turning a Mustangs' celebration into a 34-34 tie.

"When that call was made, Delta began celebrating, but after it was called correctly, you could feel the momentum come to us," Winkler said.

Less than a minute later, a long Delta return, followed by a Winkler kill gave the Pirates the stunning Game 4 win. From there OCC took care of business in Game 5 and left Delta to play 45 minutes later against a rested San Diego Mesa squad. Mesa topped the Mustangs in five games and were eliminated from the competition.

"I was just so proud of how we were able to keep our composure in that fourth game," Cutenese said. "We did a better job applying pressure with our serves late in the match and our setter (Chelsea Spadaro - 61 assists) did an excellent job of setting the ball to the right people at the right time."

Winkler finished the morning match with 33 kills, while freshman Jacqi Reed added 20. Up the middle, Eva Johnson (nine kills), Jennifer Chiffer (nine kills) and Spadaro (eight kills) helped give the Pirates depth on offense.

Against Sacramento City, the Pirates (23-2) limited their mistakes and forced the Panthers (26-4) into their own miscues.

In Game 1, Reed's jump-serves helped spark an 8-0 run, turning a 21-21 tie into a 29-21 OCC lead.
In the second game, the Pirates fell victim to a bit of a mental lapse and watched the Panthers jump out to leads of 10-3, 16-9 and 22-14, before again showing their championship grit.

A 9-2 run, highlighted by a kill and ace by Reed and three costly SCC errors, helped OCC get to within one at 24-23, forcing a Panther timeout.

Trailing 26-24, OCC again took advantage of untimely Panther errors to score five of the next six points for a 29-27 lead.

After the Panthers rallied to tie the score at 29, OCC watched a Panther serve go into the net, then ended the game with a Reed kill for a 31-29 Game 2 win.

Sacramento City, which posted wins over San Diego Mesa and second-ranked El Camino to reach the championship semifinals, took care of business in Game 3, but OCC regrouped, took a 16-8 lead in Game 4 and never looked back.

Winkler and Reed each had 18 kills against the Panthers. Johnson added seven kills up the middle.
Defensively, Ashlee Moon posted 20 digs, while Winkler added 17. Spadaro paced the offense with 42 assists, 103 combined for the two matches.

Both of the No. 1 seeds -- Delta and El Camino -- combined to go 0-4 on Saturday, costing them both a chance for a state title.

"Getting back to the title game means so much to us because all year long, everyone kept telling us we weren't good enough to make it," Moon said.

Winkler added, "All year long, we kept getting the best matches against everyone else -- it's been much tougher this year than last year."

DAY 1

FRESNO - The Orange Coast College women's volleyball team opened the California Community College Commission on Athletics State Championships with play condusive of a defending state champion squad.

Led by 29 kills and 12 digs by Kiwi Winkler, the Pirates (22-2) topped Shasta College 30-13, 30-20, 28-30, 30-20 to advance to the championship quarterfinals.

"I'm proud of the way the girls came out and played a very aggressive style of volleyball," OCC head coach Chuck Cutenese said. "After the long drive and an hour's worth of practice, we've been sitting around here ready to play, so it was nice to see us come out strong early."

The aforementioned strong play completely overwhelmed the Knights (25-6), who saw OCC rip off a 12-1 in Game 1 to jump out to a 21-9 lead, sparked by the right arm of Winkler.

The two-time All-American sophomore outside hitter notched nine of her 29 kills in the opening game, then watched the rest of her Pirate teammates use their defense in Game 2.

Sparked by 10 blocks through the first two games, the Pirates never let the Knights into the match. A 16-5 run helped give OCC a 25-14 lead and the Bucs never looked back.

"We did a lot of good things out there," Cutenese said. "Our passing, serving and defense were all very strong."

Shasta, the No. 3 seed from Northern California showed some grit in Game 3 and pushed OCC (Southern California's No. 2 seed) to a fourth game as Cutenese tried to involve more players off the bench.

"Sometimes when you try to shake the line-up a little bit, the chemestry gets out of whack," Cutenese said. "I wanted to give people opportunity to show me what they could do under these type of circumstances."

Both teams went back and forth in the third game, but it was a 9-4 run by the Knights that turned a 21-19 Pirates lead into a 28-25 Shasta advantage.

The Knights were led by Jessica Hero (13 kills, Sata Casarina (12 kills, 11 digs) and Jaclyn Alexander (10 kills).

OCC took all the guesswork out of the fourth game, jumping out to a 12-2 lead with a nice combination of four kills, three blocks and a handful of Shasta errors.

A 10-4 run helped Shasta get to within four at 16-12, but four unforced Knight errors helped push OCC's lead back up to nine, 22-13.

Shasta cut the deficit to 22-16 before four Winkler kills helped spark an 8-4 run to end the match.
Jacqi Reed added 10 kills for the Pirates, while Ashlee Moon's 21 digs led the defense.

Chelsea Spadaro paced the offense with 46 assists, while Jennifer Chiffer and Eva Johnson each notched six assisted blocks.