Men’s Volleyball Sweeps Santa Barbara in Home Finale

TORRANCE, Calif. --- El Camino College scored a 3-0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-14) Western State Conference sweep over visiting Santa Barbara on Friday night at the ECC Gym Complex.

With the win, the Warriors (13-4, 10-1) scored their 10th straight victory and wrapped their regular season home schedule.

The Warriors were led by Mark Antonov on offense as he recorded nine kills on 23 swings. He was backed up by Travis Hannemann, Andrew White and Ethan Morgan who all recorded seven kills. Vladimir Kubr dished out 29 assists as the team attacked at a .299 clip.

Toby Still led the Vaqueros and all players with 10 kills on the night while Carter Cotrell had 26 assists in the losing effort.

The first set featured six ties and two lead changes as the Vaqueros erased an early 4-0 and 6-2 hole to pull ahead of the Warriors at 14-13. They nursed the narrow lead and were up 20-19 when the Warriors surged past them with four straight points to take a three-point advantage.  

They'd make it 24-21 on a kill from Spencer Isley and, after dropping one set point, the Warriors clinched the opening game on an attacking error by Arie Padmos.

In the second set, the teams battled again with nine ties and two lead changes. The Warriors trailed 14-11 but again surged with six of the next eight points to take a 17-16 advantage. A kill from Tobias Murphree pulled the Vaqueros even at 17 but the Warriors once again strung together four straight points to open up a tight game and they cruised to win the set from there.

In the third, it was all ECC as the Vaqueros could not handle Hannemann's serve. The Warriors scored nine straight points on his service to open up a 10-1 lead and they never looked back.

The Warriors will wrap up the regular season on Tuesday with a road match at Long Beach after Wednesday's regularly scheduled match was postponed due to COVID-19 protocols within the Long Beach program. First serve is set for 7 p.m.