Santa Monica sweeps El Camino to advance to State Championship final
Keats Stanley totaled a match-high 20 kills and added seven digs to help lead the Santa Monica College Corsairs to a 25-19, 25-19, 25-19 win over the El Camino College Warriors in Wednesday's opening semifinal of the 2014 CCCAA Men's Volleyball State Championship at Santiago Canyon College in Orange.
The Corsairs advance to Friday's night's State Championship final at 7 pm and will take on the winner of Orange Coast College and Irvine Valley College. SMC, now 14-6 overall, looks to win its third state title and returns to the championship final for the first time since 1981.
Western State Conference champion El Camino was never able to get in a rhythm offensively and trailed for a majority of the contest.
Santa Monica, the WSC's third seed, put together big runs to jump out to commanding leads. With the score tied at 14 in the first set, Luis Palos served the Corsairs to a 7-0 run to go up 21-14. In the second, a 6-0 run with Palos serving turned a close 3-3 tie into a 9-3 SMC advantage.
Down two sets to none, El Camino finally showed life early in the third set. The Warriors jumped out to a 7-4 lead but that was quickly neutralized by a 4-1 run by Santa Monica to tie up the set at 8-8. Stanley's kill gave SMC its first lead of the set at 10-9 before the Corsairs strung together a 5-0 run to take a commanding 17-11 lead in the third.
Later, another kill by Stanley gave SMC match point before Tom Porter sealed the victory with a middle kill.
Santa Monica setter Kasey Dunn totaled 40 assists and six digs while Taylor Tattersall had 12 kills, eight digs, and four blocks.
El Camino hit just .067 for the match. Roy Powell led the Warriors with 10 kills while Errol Basconcillo totaled 11 digs. The Warriors end their season with a 15-5 overall record.