Men’s Volleyball: Vikings drop second straight home match, fall 3-1 to Santa Monica

What started well for the Long Beach City College men's volleyball team ended horribly on Saturday night as the Vikings suffered a 3-1 Western State Conference loss to visiting Santa Monica College.

Long Beach rolled to an easy 25-11 win in Set 1, but lost the next three to Santa Monica by scores of 25-19, 25-23, and 25-19.

The loss was the Vikings' second straight at home and dropped them to 12-4 overall and 7-2 in the WSC.

Sophomore middle blocker Kris Johnson (Lakewood HS) did all he could to keep the Vikings in the match. He had an impressive .600 attack percentage and totaled a match-high 16 kills. Sophomore setter Chris Austin (Henderson, NV) added 33 assists.

Blake Levin led Santa Monica (4-11, 2-6 WSC) with 13 kills.

Long Beach had already clinched a playoff spot with its 3-1 win at El Camino College on Friday. LBCC must win its regular-season finale on Friday (Apr 15) at Los Angeles Pierce College to wrap up the Western State Conference championship and earn an opening-round playoff bye.