Men’s Volleyball Opens Playoffs at Irvine Valley

The El Camino College men's volleyball team was given the No. 6 overall seed in the California Community College Men's Volleyball State Championship Playoffs on Monday.

The Warriors will travel to No. 3 Irvine Valley on Friday night at 6 p.m. for their quarterfinal matchup and a chance to advance to the CCCAA State Championships for the third time in the last four years. The Warriors finished second in state in 2017 and 2015.

The Lasers finished second overall in the Orange Empire Conference with a 15-5 overall record and 5-3 mark in conference.

Friday's match will be the second time the teams will face each other this season. The Lasers defeated the Warriors on Feb. 7 at the ECC South Gym. It was only the third match of the season for the Warriors and fifth for the Lasers at the time with IVC scoring the victory in four sets.

The Warriors were led by Matthew Donatucci's 15 kills in the match but the Warriors attacked at just a .174 clip while the Lasers committed just 11 attacking errors on 106 attempts for a .387 percentage and the victory.

On the season, Donatucci led the Warriors with 187 kills in 14 matches and 51 sets played. He averaged 3.67 kills per set with a .217 attacking percentage. Connor Payne was second on the squad with 99 kills and a 2.83 average but led the team with a .248 attacking percentage.

Joseph Sico led the team with 526 assists and a 9.74 per set average while Michael Donatucci led the defense with 148 digs and a 3.15 per set average.

The winner of Friday's match will face the winner of the Orange Coast – Santa Barbara City matchup at the CCCAA State Semifinals on Thursday, April 26 at Fullerton College. The Warriors were swept by OCC in the first match of the season at Cal Lutheran and defeated Santa Barbara at the ECC South Gym on Feb. 23.