Rustlers Sweep Hornets to Return to Title Match

Long Beach, Calif. – The defending state champion Golden West College men's volleyball team is one big win away from returning to the top of the mountain after sweeping past Fullerton College, 3-0, on Thursday in the first of two semifinal matches of the 3C2A Men's Volleyball State Championships, hosted by Long Beach City College.

With the 25-15, 26-24, 25-18 win, the Rustlers (23-3) will take on the winner of Thursday's second semifinal match between Long Beach City and Santa Barbara City on Saturday at LBCC, beginning at 7 p.m. The loss ends the inspired run by the eighth-seeded Hornets as they finish 2026 with a record of 15-9.

The Rustlers set the tone for the match right from the opening serve as they jumped out to 7-0 lead before the Hornets knew what hit them. Strong serves from John Braunstein and several early Fullerton attack errors put the Rustlers in a great spot early on.

The Hornets, playing in their first-ever trip to the State Final Four since bringing the program back to life in 2017, regained their footing, but could not get back into the opening set as GWC fired on all cylinders throughout the first set, taking the opener, 25-15.

In the second set, the Hornets leveled-up and battled point for point with the Rustlers. A 4-1 GWC mini-run late in the second put the Rustlers up 21-17, forcing a timeout by the Hornets.

Fullerton responded well after the timeout, ripping off three points with kills by Seth Asaoka and Daniel Minjarez to bring the Hornets to within a point at 21-20 and forcing GWC into a timeout.

After GWC extended its lead to 22-20, a kill by Asaoka and a block by Minjarez and Logan Busch brought the Hornets even at 22.

Both teams traded two points each to extend the second set. After a violation above the net was called on the Hornets to put the Rustlers up 25-24, a tandem block by Aidan Dubno and AJ Kuebrich sealed the second set for Golden West, 26-24, putting the Rustlers in control with a two-set advantage.

For the Hornets, this was familiar and successful territory as they earned their trip to the State Final Four with a pair of five-set wins over Santa Monica (regular-season finale) and Orange Coast (State Elite Eight) after dropping the opening first two sets. But, the Rustlers refused to allow Fullerton to gain any momentum in the third.

A carbon copy of the opening set, Golden West jumping out to a quick advantage as the Rustlers rolled out to an early 7-2 lead, forcing an early Hornet timeout.

Fullerton tried to push back with three straight points to turn a 15-10 deficit into a more manageable 15-13 hole, but the Rustlers showed why they are the defending state champs, ripping off five straight points after that to take a commanding 20-13 advantage. A pair of Gino Viggiano kills and a kill and ace from Aidan Dubno highlighted GWC's pivotal run.

A mini 3-0 run by the Hornets gave the Rustlers a slight pause before ending the match with a 5-2 run, capped off by a Kuebrich kill on match point.

Dubno led the Rustlers with 10 kills, while Frankie Gates added eight with no errors on 11 attempts (.727 hitting percentage). Braunstein dished out 17 assists, while teammate Bryce Nehova added 11 assists. On defense, Kenneth Olmos led the way with 10 digs, while Noah Nelson came up with eight. GWC had 17 total blocks, with Kuebrich leading the way with five (one solo).

For the Hornets, Samuel Chavez capped off his impressive 2026 season with 11 kills, while Busch added six. Emiliano Razo paced the offense with 22 assists, while Saman Bagheri came through with a team-best 14 digs. Busch added 12 digs to his stat line that included six kills.

Courtesy of Tony Altobelli, CCCSIA