Maybe it was the early start time or maybe it was the opponent but something was definitely off for the SBCC men's volleyball team in Saturday's 1 p.m. match with Orange Coast. The Pirates swept the Vaqueros 25-20, 25-21, 25-20 in the Sports Pavilion.
"That was an uninspired, undisciplined effort," said third-year coach Matt Jones. "On serve-receive and passing, I saw a lot of timidity from our guys. The jump serve we handled decently but on the jump float, we had no one attacking the ball in serve-receive. We were letting the ball play us instead of playing the ball."
Taylor McCluskey had eight kills and Robert Gulvin added five for the Vaqueros (1-1), who were tied 10 times in the opening set before the Pirates (3-0) went on a 5-0 run to take a 19-14 lead. The Vaqueros got within two (22-20) on a wide crosscourt shot by OCC but the visitors scored three straight to take the set.
Adrian Faitalia topped OCC with 13 kills and Gianluca Grasso had eight. The Pirates have been to the State Final Four eight of the last nine years and won the title in 2014.
The Vaqueros hit just .015 and had one ace and 11 service errors.
"Our blocking was terribly undisciplined and we kept giving away free points," Jones added. "We capped that off with 11 missed serves in three sets and that's unacceptable."
The Vaqueros open a three-game road trip on Saturday, Feb. 13 with a 5 p.m. match at UC Santa Cruz. It will be their second match against an NCAA Div. 3 school this year.
