Long Beach Downs Santa Barbara in Semifinals

Long Beach, Calif. – The third time WAS the charm for the Long Beach City College Vikings as they shrugged off a pair of hard-fought, regular-season losses to Santa Barbara by sweeping past the Vaqueros, 3-0, in the second semifinal match of the 3C2A Men's Volleyball State Championships on Thursday night at LBCC.

The relentless hitting and blocking, along with the strong passing from standout setter, Ryder Tuaolo, helped pave the way for the Vikings' 25-18, 25-20, 25-15 victory.

With the win, the Vikings (18-8) will advance to the championship match, where they will face defending state champion, Golden West College, on Saturday, beginning at 7 p.m. at LBCC.

Tuaolo paced the LBCC offense with 38 assists and spread the ball all over the floor, sparking an impressive hitting display by the Vikings, who ripped 47 kills with just seven hitting errors for a dominating .465 hitting percentage.

Ezekiel Sablan led the Long Beach attack with 13 kills, while Alden Jacobs (.526 hitting percentage) and Ethan Hammond (.588) each had 11 kills and one hitting error each. Noah Pannek contributed seven kills, with Manu Lill knocking down five kills on just seven attempts.

While Long Beach hit with success, it was a different story for the Vaqueros, who managed just 25 kills and a .071 hitting percentage thanks to the length of the Vikings blocking at the net. Long Beach notched 15 total blocks (5 solo), with Pannek earning three of those solo blocks and Hammond (one solo, four block assists) joining in on the fun.

After SBCC jumped out to an early 7-3 advantage, Long Beach began to chip away at the lead. Trailing 11-9, the Vikings picked up five straight points to grab a 14-11 advantage. A pair of kills by Sablan and Lil highlighted LBCC's return to the lead.

The Viking advantage was still at three (17-14) when a kill and block from Jacobs and a kill by Hammond pushed Long Beach's lead up to six at 20-14. 

From there, the Vikings did what they had to do to earn the opening-set win, with a kill and ace from Jacobs to cap off the Set 1 victory.

Santa Barbara (19-5) looked to regain control of things and even the match at 1-1 with an 18-15 lead midway through the second set.

But the Vikings used a crucial 7-1 run to pull ahead of the Vaqueros, 22-19 lead. Kills by Hammond, Sablan and Jacobs along with a Sablan ace helped spearhead the momentum swing. 

Mykolas Petritias, who led SBCC with nine kills to go along with five digs, slammed one down to help the Vaqueros get to within two at 22-20, but a Hammond kill and back-to-back attack errors by Santa Barbara gave the second set and a 2-0 lead in the match to the Vikings.

That LBCC momentum carried on into the third set as the Vikings never trailed the rest of the way. Leading 12-9, Long Beach pulled away for good with an 8-3 run to lead 20-12 and from there, it was just a matter of time for the host Vikings, who avenged a pair of five-set losses to the Vaqueros during the 2026 season and won when it mattered the most.

Greyson Goldberg contributed to the SBCC offense with seven kills, while Ayden Welch dished out 12 assists. Luke Steinert anchored the Vaquero defense with six digs.

LBCC will now look prepare for the Rustlers, a team – much like Santa Barbara – that beat the Vikings twice during the regular season. GWC opening the 2026 campaign with a 3-0 win over Long Beach on Jan. 24 (25-21, 25-18, 25-19) and topped Long Beach again at LBCC on Feb. 18 in five sets (15-25, 25-18, 20-25, 25-17, 15-11).

Long Beach is looking for their seventh men's volleyball championship in school history (2004, 2006, 2009, 2012, 2016, 2019), while the Rustlers go for state championship No. 8 in their proud history (1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2013, 2025).

Courtesy of Tony Altobelli, CCCSIA