The Irvine Valley men's volleyball team bounced back from its first loss of the season with probably its most impressive win.
The Lasers pulled out a 26-30, 32-34, 30-18, 30-28, 15-11 victory at El Camino in a non-conference game Wednesday night.
"The guys did a nice job of not folding and fighting all the way," Irvine Valley Coach Tom Pestolesi said. "We were down, 5-2, and, 10-7, in the fifth game and went on an 8-1 run to end the match and win."
Pestolesi gave a lot of credit to his players up front for the comeback, especially in the final game.
"It happened because the blockers were smart and we made three key digs in that run," he said. "I thought El Camino played great. They out-dug us overall big time. We came out a little flat at the start and they were much more aggressive."
Pestolesi said a big key was inserting sophomore outside hitter Cory Walker in the third game. He responded with 12 kills in 24 attempts the rest of the way.
The Lasers also served better in the later stages of the match. They missed 20 serves in the contest, 17 of them happened in the first three games.
Freshman outside hitter Peter Johnson led the Lasers with 27 kills and 13 digs. Freshman outside hitter Marcus Fernandez played really well with 19 kills and only two errors and he passed at 2.31 clip.
Freshman middle blocker Ted Slaughter added 11 kills, eight block assists and two aces. Freshman setter Tyler Rex had 74 assists.
"(Rex) played much better as the match went on," Pestolesi said.
Freshman libero Sean Grubbs also had a solid match. He passed at an impressive 2.75 mark on 36 serve receive attempts to go along with 12 digs.
Irvine Valley improved its record to 4-1 on the season. It plays again on Wednesday, Feb. 28, hosting Santa Barbara at 6 p.m.