Mark Twain once wrote, "The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated." And so it is with the Ventura College volleyball team in 2014. On the strength of big wins over Santa Monica and Pierce, the Pirates were selected as the No. 15-seed in the CCCAA SoCal Regional Playoffs Sunday, ending a seven-year post-season drought for the program.
The season of redemption continues for the Pirates (12-10), as they will continue their climb back to relevance at No. 2 Grossmont College (25-0) Tuesday Nov. 25 at 6:00 pm. The Griffons lost a coin-toss to Irvine Valley (21-0) for the region's top seed. The winner of Tuesday's VC-Grossmont match will face the winner of No. 7 Palomar (19-4) and No. 10 Orange Coast (14-6) on saturday Nov. 29.
This is the first post-season appearance for Ventura since 2007, when, as the No. 13 seed, the lost their first-round match at Fullerton College. VC last won a playoff match as the No. 3 seed in 2005, defeating Cypress before falling to Irvine Valley.