Pirates edged by Santa Barbara in Regional Finals
SANTA BARBARA -- By the narrowest of margins, the Orange Coast College beach volleyball team was eliminated from the playoffs after a heartbreaking 3-2 loss to host Santa Barbara City College last week in the Southern California Regional playoffs.
After sweeping past Golden West, 5-0, in their first matchup of the regional, the Pirates (19-2) faced SBCC (19-6) for a trip to the 3C2A State Championships.
Both teams picked up straight-set wins in the first two matches, leaving it up to Nos. 3-4-5 to decide the winner, with all three matches going to a third set. OCC's Jordan Packer and Kayla Ihrig won their match at No. 1, 21-13, 21-14.
In the No. 5 match, Nika Safavi and Madison Hopkins pulled out a three-set win, taking the third, 15-13. But the third set wasn't as kind to the Pirates in Nos. 3-4 as the Vaqueros won their third set at No. 3 by a score of 15-9 and at No. 14 at 15-11.
SBCC advances to the 3C2A team championships after handing OCC just their second loss of the season (the first loss was also a 3-2 loss to the Vaqueros, back on Feb. 7.
The Pirates will still have a pair of pairs advancing to the 3C2A Beach Volleyball Pairs Championships at Long Beach City College this weekend as Packer/Ihrig and Safavi/Hopkins each earned qualifying spots into the state tournament, which kick off on Friday.
