Pirates fall to Dons, but top Tigers in OEC Tri-Match

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- The Orange Coast College beach volleyball team nearly pulled out a sweep over Santa Ana and Riverside, but had to settle for a split on Friday at the Huntington Beach/Newland Courts in an Orange Empire Conference tri-match.

In the morning match, Coast took care of business against the RCC Tigers and notched a 4-1 win. The pivotal match in the morning took place at No. 5 where Engelica Glattli and Alex Hayes were pushed to a third set, before topping RCC's Patricia Brucks and Vanessa Dominiquez, 21-19, 16-21, 15-13. 

Straight set wins were earned by a trio of OCC teams, including Kacey Mathieson/Jadelyn Forgiarini (21-18, 21-10), Rylee Adair/Devyn Holland (21-18, 21-14) and Sierra Lim/Keika Yoshizumi (21-16, 23-21).

In the afternoon, Coast took on Santa Ana and pushed the Dons to the limit before falling, 3-2. The match of the afternoon took place in the No. 2 match as OCC's Adair and Holland needed extra time in both sets to pull out the win against SAC's Kassandra Murillo and Kayla Long, winning, 24-22, 22-20. 

At No. 5, Glattli and Georgia Grisham picked up OCC's other win with a 21-12, 21-7 victory over Hanna DeGrasse and Destinee Blue. The No. 4 match needed to go three sets and in the end, that proved to be the difference as the Dons pulled out a 15-5 win in the deciding set after splitting the first two sets, 21-13, 15-21.

With the split, OCC's record is now 5-6 overall. The Pirates will return to action on Friday in a double-dip against Cypress and Concordia University, beginning at 10 a.m. at the Huntington Beach/Newland Courts.