The Long Beach City College men's volleyball team bounced back from a tough five-set loss on Wednesday with a 25-21, 25-23, 25-17 victory on Friday night over visiting Santa Monica College.
The Western State Conference win improved Long Beach to 8-2 overall and 2-1 in conference play.
Freshman Dan Starkey (Fox Lake, IL) led LBCC with nine kills, freshman Marques Buggs (Poly HS) added eight kills, while sophomore Henry Taylor (Calvary Chapel HS) added seven kills with a match-best .778 hitting percentage.
LBCC edged Santa Monica (6-4, 2-2 WSC) for a four-point win in the opener, but had to come-from-behind in the second set. The Vikings trailed 12-9 and were down later 16-15. With the score tied at 17, consecutive errors by Santa Monica put Long Beach out ahead for good. The Vikings pulled out the second-set win despite hitting just .036 (9 kills, 8 errors, 28 attempts).
With momentum on its side, Long Beach stormed out to an 11-3 lead in the third set and appeared to be on its way to the easy sweep. But the Corsairs rallied for four straight points and eventually were as close as 19-16 late. But from that point it was all Vikings. LBCC scored six of the final seven points. Buggs' kill off the block sealed the set and match win for the Vikings.
Taylor Tattersall led Santa Monica with 12 kills and Kasey Dunn had 33 assists.
Long Beach returns to action next week with a pair of 7 p.m. WSC matches on the road. On Wednesday (Mar 12), the Vikings travel to Moorpark College and on Friday (Mar 14) are at LA Pierce College.
