The Pierce College men’s volleyball lost on Friday to Orange Coast College losing all three sets.
OCC dominated from the very beginning by capitalizing off of Pierce’s mistakes. The loss leaves the Brahmas with a 2-3 record for the season.
“I felt the first two sets we were a little bit slow to start and gave those guys a five point lead,” said Lance Walker, head coach for the Brahmas. “We kind of had to play catch up.”
In the second set the OCC squad had twice as many errors as Pierce, but the Brahmas were unable to take advantage.
“We had some opportunities and it’s more of being mindful of certain opportunities and really taking advantage of that,” said Walker. “I think that its just past of the learning process of volleyball.”
OCC was not startled by Pierce’s late run to extend the game to a forth set even with Dan Williams’ cannonball like arm.
“We did work on him, we know about him,” said Travis Turner, head coach of OCC. “He jumps off his left leg.”
Pierce forced OCC to win by two, three times in the third set before they won the match.
“We just had to stay under control and not get too emotional,” said Johannes Brink, starter for OCC.
The Brahmas even had a chance to win the third set with Orange Coast down by two at set point, but failed to capitalize on the opportunity.
“We didn’t get worried if we came down or we went up. It wasn’t a big deal, we just had to play our own game,” Brink said.
There were several reasons to Pierce’s fall but obvious ones like errors and siding out caused OCC to come out on top.
“We sided out pretty well,” said Turner. “I think that’s the difference between the two teams.”
Lance Walker sees this game as a stepping stone as he remembers the past.
“If you were to come in and see our team at the beginning of the last semester to right now most people wouldn’t believe that they are seeing the same team,” said Walker.
Orange Coast coach Travis Turner co-signed with Walker, complimenting him on his coaching ability.
“Lance is going to do a great job here, he is a really good coach,” said Turner. “He is going to turn this program around, we got lucky tonight.”
The Brahmas hope to end their one game losing streak when they visit Santa Monica College on March 1st.