Santa Monica outlasts Vaqueros 3-1

Santa Monica prevailed 34-32 in the longest set of the year on Wednesday night and went on to defeat SBCC 3-1 in a WSC men's volleyball match at the Sports Pavilion. The scores were 25-17, 24-26, 34-32, 25-15.

Taylor McCluskey led the Vaqueros (8-7, 3-5) with 17 kills and nine digs. Robert Gulvin added 10 kills and a .471 hitting percentage and Haward Gomes had eight kills and hit .353. Jackson Wopat collected seven kills and six blocks. Setter Kyle Smiley had 44 assists, seven digs and four blocks.

Richard Yu, a 6-4 freshman from South Pasadena, topped the Corsairs with 25 kills. Joseph Mayer had 54 assists. SMC hit .326 and the Vaqueros finished at .240.

After hitting a robust .514 (19 kills, 1 error) while winning the second set, the Vaqueros plunged to .154 in the third set. Santa Barbara stormed back from deficits of 10-4 and 17-10 and used an 11-2 burst to take a 21-19 lead on an ace serve by Jonathan Baldwin.

The Corsairs (8-7, 6-2) scored five of the next six points and had their first set point at 24-22. McCluskey produced a kill and he and Gulvin combined on a block to tie it at 24.

Santa Monica had five set points and the Vaqueros had six shots at the victory. The Corsairs finally won it 34-32 on a crosscourt kill by Shane Stoklos, the son of legendary beach volleyball star Randy Stoklos, and a crosscourt kill by Roscoe Nelms.

"We missed some crucial serves there in extra time when we were trying to get stops to win the game," said SBCC coach Matt Jones. "We didn't make them earn it. I thought they netted on the block on game point but that's not why we lost the third set. We lost it because we fell behind by seven or eight points at the beginning.

"We couldn't do anything to stop No. 10 (Yu). We thought we had a good game plan but our block was getting tooled all night. When we did funnel the ball, our defenders weren't able to get many digs on him. I don't know exactly what he hit but I imagine it was pretty good."

The Corsairs went on a 10-3 run to take a 21-14 lead in the first set. The second set was tight throughout until the Vaqueros went ahead 21-17. SMC tied it with four quick points and had set point at 24-23 but served it into the net. The Vaqueros took the second set 26-24 on a kill off the block by McCluskey and a blast down the middle by Wopat.

After the emotional marathon win in the third set, the Corsairs jumped on the Vaqueros in Set 4, building leads of 6-1, 12-4 and 18-8. Kyle Skinner capped the match with a kill down the middle.

"We didn't pass particularly well tonight," said Jones. "We basically need to win out now to have a shot at the playoffs."

The Vaqueros have four matches remaining, starting Friday at Moorpark at 6 p.m.