I stepped into OCC men's head volleyball coach Travis Turner's office for a short interview about the season.

I also met sophomore setter Doug Astor in there.

I caught them in a good time since they were both talking about the season and where Astor hopes to go to college next semester (USC or Loyola Marymount University).

First question was in regards to what happened against Golden West College in the state's semi-finals.

"We missed a ton of serves and they dug a bunch of balls - they just out dug us," Turner (left) said. "But we played well and ended the thing well."

Next question was about what's next for the program and he said they will be back in the gym on Monday (May 4) to practice and hopefully get the sophomores ready to play next fall for wherever they're going.

Turner said sophomore Mike Stewart visited Ohio State University this week and believes he'll sign there and sophomore Rick Schroeder is going to UC Santa Cruz.

Far as next season: "I think we're going to be really good next year - I think everyone is going to be good next year," Turner said. "With so many few opportunities in Division-I, so many kids are going to JCs. I think we're going to have 40 kids the first day."

I also asked Astor (right) about the season and the overall experience.

"Coast was just a good growing experience outside the volleyball court and inside," Astor said. "Just little things, dealing with life, dealing with people on the court, knowing how to talk to certain people on the court, how to get them to perform to their abilities."

Far as how practices went: "Travis was known for creating chaos in the gym to prepare us - that's the way the playoffs went," Astor said.

Both seemed to be a bit shocked that the season is over but finishing third in state and making the semi-finals for three straight years is nothing to be ashamed of.

Head coach Travis Turner told me anything can happen if they get to the final four but they had to beat Moorpark College to get there.

Earlier this year, the Pirates lost in straight sets to Moorpark but on April 21, Coast won in a hard-fought five-set game.

Turner said both teams are similar and he seemed confident that his players matched up well against Moorpark. All year long, he's said it's not the talent the team lacks, it's how they play once they're on the court.

In a press release by OCC Sports Information Director Tony Altobelli, Turner said, "It was by far, our best effort as a group of the season. Most of the year, we'd win a few points, lose a few points and get totally flustered. (On Tuesday), we'd lose a few points, but we did a much better job of shrugging it off and playing through the adversity."

The Pirates took the court on April 23 at the CCCAA Men's Volleyball State Championships to play against conference and school rivals the Golden West College Rustlers.

In its prior two meetings, the Pirates lost both games - one at home after starting off a set 5-0.

Altobelli wrote a great summary of the game so I won't say anything more about it. [Click here to read about the GWC vs. OCC matchup in the final four]

I want to give a shoutout to Turner for coaching another successful season and a thanks for allowing me to cover the team. Going to the third-straight final four is ridiculously impressive at a Community College program - it shows the strength of the coaches.

I want to give a shoutout to sophomore player Jake Melone. He's been leading the Pirates all year long, Turner has said nothing but good things about his character and one of the nicest guys I've met this year. I wish both of them nothing but good luck.

Also, the Coast Report got an e-mail from a "Mike Stewart" that said why the paper didn't cover the men's volleyball in the final four. There's also a Mike Stewart on the team also. I don't know if it's the same two but if it is, I want to say I didn't forget about you guys.

[Photo courtesy of Orange Coast College]

Orange Coast College's men's volleyball player Jake Melone (left) is a sophomore outside hitter from Loara High School and lead the team today with 19 kills.

Melone is also a former Pirate of the Week that I had the honor to interview. I'm glad he won his last home game as a sophomore.

Travis Turner (right) is the head coach of the OCC men's volleyball team. He's always available for interviews and always helps me out in anyway possible.

Here's the interview after the game.

Today was the last game of the season and you guys came out with a victory. How do you guys feel about that?
Travis: I'm glad. I thought we played well and we tried a new lineup and I think it worked pretty well.
Jake: It's good. Just to play our last game on our home court - last game few of the guys are going to play (at OCC) - and we came out with a win. It was good.

I wanted to ask you guys about the problem the team's had of winning a game in a dominating fashion and then not winning the next ones.
Travis: Yeah, we've had that problem all year but we haven't came back to win after losing game two all year. So to do that tonight was a step forward.

And Jake, you've been talking about the "killer mentality" all year. Do you guys think you have that under control now?
Jake: I think we did have that tonight - not too much in the second game obviously - but as soon as we lost (game two), some of us got together, we were sick of us backing down and came back out with some attitude.

You guys were trailing game four for most of the time until you guys rallied back to tie it up at 20-20 and then went on to win the match. How big was that?
Travis: Well I think we finally got more serves in a row. I think Jake was serving at the time and kind of went on a run there. We've been trying to talk about understanding when to rip your serve and when to get it in and I thought we did a good job.
Jake: I just tried to keep my serve in and let our big guys at the net do their thing and they did it.

And next game against Moorpark...
Travis: That's going to be tough. They're good. They're pretty similar to us so we'll see. It's at their place which will be a good challenge for us.
Jake: I'm really excited to play there and beat them. It's a big game, I think we're ready for it, we're going to get at it at practice and just go over there and...
Travis: ...show them what's up.
Jake: Exactly.

[Photo by Tony Lee]

The men’s volleyball team is 11-8 (7-4 in Pacific Coast Conference) and hopes to play in the state championship game again.

Last year, the Pirates finished in second place to the state champions Irvine Valley College and looks forward to another strong playoff run.

Even though two out of the four PCC losses this year came from IVC (the other two from Golden West College), I’m optimistic about our team’s chances after talking to head coach Travis Turner after Tuesday’s practice.


Talk about your season so far.
You know what, it’s probably been a little down from what I expected us to do just based on what we had in the fall but if we end this thing on a positive note and beat Moorpark (College) at Moorpark, you can forget about the whole season – (it matters that) you do well at the end.

Talk about Irvine Valley and Golden West College – your main rivals in the Pacific Coast Conference.
IVC just out-gutted us and Golden West are a little bit more physical than we are. Those are two teams we can beat but we’ve got to play better than we did and today was a big step. We had a really good practice today.

Far as returning to state championship game again, that has to be your goal right?
Oh definitely. I think If we can beat Moorpark at Moorpark then we’re there and we have a shot. Anything can happen there – there are only four teams.

Name one thing you guys have been doing good all season long and name one thing you guys been struggling with.
I think our ball control has been good all season long. Our serving hasn’t been very good and our blocking's been really poor – which is not a good thing.

Anything you want to say to the fans out there?
We’ve had great support all year. The women’s volleyball team’s been great, the women’s softball team’s been to a lot of the matches. Professor (Robert) Raya is awesome – he gets kids here – and we’ve been lucky. In all the JCs, we have more people (at our games) than anyone else. And our sports editor isn’t too bad either.

Log on Wednesday at around 6 p.m. to see the live coverage of the final home game for the men’s volleyball team against Palomar College.

[Photo by Tony Lee]