Women’s Volleyball: OCC rally gets coach win No. 400

Megan Ritchie didn’t return to volleyball after a two-year absence with the intention of merely watching.

So, when the 21-year-old Orange Coast College sophomore, who played for the Pirates in 2013 then took two seasons off to experience a two-year church mission in British Columbia, Canada, came off the bench in the Pirates’ Orange Empire Conference match against visiting Fullerton on Wednesday, she displayed all the subtlety of a wrecking ball.

Ritchie’s energy helped lift the Pirates to a 20-25, 25-17, 25-10, 25-23 victory that gave Coach Chuck Cutenese, in his 25th season, career win No. 400 at OCC.

The triumph also lifted the Pirates to the .500 mark, both overall (6-6) and in conference (1-1), and Ritchie — go figure — said she believes it could be the start of a serious OCC uprising.

“I love the game and it hypes me up and I want to give that to my teammates,” said Ritchie, who produced 27 assists, four kills and four aces to help the hosts rally from a dismal opening set. “Even if I’m off the bench, what’s most important is the energy that’s on the court. One player can change that, and either bring it up or bring it down. I always want to be the one who brings it up.”

Mission accomplished.

Ritchie’s willingness to utilize her middle attackers added efficiency to an OCC offense that lacked consistent production from the pins.

Funaki Hansen, a 5-foot-10 freshman middle blocker, and Tileree Johnson, a 5-8 freshman middle, had 13 and nine kills, respectively, for the winners. Hansen also had 15 digs.

“If you want to hype up a team, you get the middle a good kill,” Ritchie said. “And that gets everyone going crazy. Our middles are awesome.”

OCC pulled away from a 9-9 deadlock to claim the second set, then seized leads of 5-2 and 20-8 en route to a commanding third-set win.

In the final set, OCC built leads of 8-1, 11-2 and 13-4, but Fullerton (2-6, 0-2) battled back to within 23-22.

But OCC outside hitter Breanna Gardner, a 5-8 freshman who has led the Pirates in kills thus far, produced a kill to create match point, 24-22. After Fullerton scored, Gardner notched her sixth kill to close out the match.

Aubrey St. Laurent, a 5-10 freshman opposite, had nine kills and Hannah Del Barto, a 5-5 freshman outside hitter, added seven for OCC, which received 24 digs from freshman libero Sierra Lim.

Cutenese, who guided the Pirates to state championships in 2009, 2006 and 2005 and played on a men’s state championship team with the Pirates, is 400-162 all-time with the OCC women’s program.

“I think we have the athletic ability, now we just need to get the mental game there,” Ritchie said. “Once we get that, I think we’re unstoppable, honestly. We’re a short team and we don’t look like we can go hard, but give us the confidence and we can do it.”

OCC, which is not ranked in the state top-25 rankings, or those listed among others considered, plays host to Santiago Canyon at 6 p.m. Wednesday.