Orange Coast College

Streak-busters: Rustlers stop Pirates in four

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

HUNTINGTON BEACH - One of the longest winning streaks in the history of Orange Coast College sports was stopped on Wednesday as the women's volleyball team fell to Golden West, 30-21, 26-30, 31-29, 30-28, stopping the Pirates' winning run at 36 matches.
"Golden West is a big, athletic team," OCC head coach Chuck Cutenese said. "We got ourselves in trouble and we tried we do some different things and unfortunately, we weren't able to respond. They challenged us and we didn't rise to that challenge."
The last loss by the Pirates was in the second round of the playoffs two seasons ago to Cypress, on Nov. 27, 2004. In that span, here's the streak by the numbers:

A 73-game winning streak, beginning at the start of the 2005 season and ending in Game 2 of the state semifinals against San Joaquin Delta.
OCC won 108 out of 114 games played during the streak, an astounding 94.7 percent.
OCC outscored the opposition 3,230-2,252 in points during the streak.
The average margin of victory during the streak was 30-21.
In 114 total games, the opposition hit the 25-point-or-higher mark just 25 times.
Held to 20-25 points - 24 times
Held to 15-20 points - 44 times
Held to 14 points or fewer - 21 times
31 of OCC's 36 match wins were three-game sweeps.

As for Wednesday's play, it was a matchup between the defense and ball-handling of top-ranked OCC (10-1, 3-1 in conference) and the physical size of the 15th ranked Rustlers (6-1, 4-0).
Things looked strong for the guests as the Pirates opened Game 1 with an 18-11 lead before GWC fought back.
Trailing 20-14, the Rustlers ripped off 16 of the next 17 points, including a 12-0 run to close out the game. Key kills by Kassie Faulkner and some clutch serving by Leslie Ray lifted the Rustlers past the stunned Bucs.
"We got caught with two rotations that absolutely killed us," Cutenese said. "We weren't able to get the big points when we needed them."
OCC again gained the upper hand in Game 2, jumping out to an 18-8 lead. Despite relentless pressure from their big players up front (28 blocks as a team) and some excellent defense (Katie Carlson - 41 digs), the Rustlers weren't able to get all the way back, thanks to the strong hitting of Jacqi Reed, who led the way with 28 kills.
In the pivotal third game, OCC held a 24-17 lead before GWC went on an 11-3 run to take a 28-27 advantage.
A wide Rustler serve, followed by a Reed kill gave the Pirates a 29-28 lead and following a Kiwi Winkler dig, they had an opportunity to close out the game, but their kill attempt hit the antenna, tying the score at 29. From there, a block by 6-foot-4 Janell Putnam and a Ray kill, pushed the Rustlers into a 2-1 lead in games.
Game 3 saw Golden West jump out with a lead, but OCC hung tough despite two scoring errors by the official scorers that gave the Rustlers an extra point and left the Pirates a point short on their total.
While OCC kept things close, the strong play of the Rustlers prevented a long scoring run by the Pirates and they were never able to gain a significant advantage.
Trailing 29-25, a net violation, followed by a pair of Reed kills cut the OCC deficit to 29-28, but on the next point, a Pirate return went long, ending the match.
"I told the girls to take this experience and learn from it," Cutenese said. "Will we? That remains to be seen. Right now, we've got sophomores who are trying to do too much and freshmen who aren't doing enough."
Faulkner finished the match with 19 kills. Ray and Courtney Neils each added 14 for the Rustlers.
For the Bucs, Winkler chipped in 19 kills and 24 digs, Chelsea Spadaro dished out 45 assists and Ashlee Moon posted 30 digs.
OCC returns to action on Friday at home against Riverside, beginning at 7 p.m.