Warriors Comeback Bid Falls Short Against No. 3 Long Beach City

TORRANCE, Calif. – Down two sets and halfway to defeat in the third, No. 4 El Camino College stormed back to force a fifth set and erased five set points but it was not enough as the Warriors fell to No. 3 Long Beach City College 3-2 (25-23, 25-19, 23-25, 21-25, 15-13) Friday night at the ECC South Gym.

Cesar Medina led the Warriors (8-6, 2-1) with 20 kills and Pedro Campos dished out 40 assists but Cyrus Fa'alogo and Travis O'Gorman recorded 20 kills each for the Vikings (12-3, 3-0) to go along with 46 combined helpers from setters Gary Trejo and Jayce Ashment propelled the Vikings to victory.

PJ Tulikihihifo pitched in with 10 kills for the Warriors in the loss as ECC hit at just a .121 percentage. The Vikings did not fare to much better at .203 but LBCC outhit the Warriors .211 to .045 in the fifth and deciding set.

The Warriors jumped out in front early in the first set, taking a 19-16 lead at one point before the Vikings scored nine of the next 13 points to pull out the set and take a 1-0 lead.

After dropping the second set and falling behind 12-6 in the third, the Warriors mounted their comeback as they edged the Vikings, 25-23 in the fourth set and then led throughout most of the fourth set to force a deciding fifth.

In the fifth, the Vikings built a 14-8 advantage but the Warriors rallied for five straight points, four on Jaden Misaalefua's serve, trimming the deficit to one. But Steven Rotter notched his 10th and final kill on the last serve to clinch the match for the Vikings and squelching the Warriors comeback effort.