Men's volleyball team gears up for conference with win
Feb 28, 2007
The Irvine Valley men’s volleyball team finished off non-conference play with a four-game (30-24, 30-25, 24-30, 30-27) win over Santa Barbara City Wednesday night at home.
t was the team’s second straight victory and improved its record to 5-1 overall.
But the Lasers had to work hard for the win. After an easy first-game victory, the hustling Vaqueros gave Irvine Valley all it could handle.
Irvine Valley trailed, 18-13, in the second game before storming back.
It pulled to within 18-16 and then later tied the second game at 20-20.
Irvine Valley took its first lead of the game at 22-21 on a kill by freshman outside hitter Rory Jones.
The game was tied, 22-22, when the Lasers scored three straight points to take control.
Freshman outside hitter Peter Johnson had a kill, freshman setter Tyler Rex stuffed an overpass and Johnson followed up with an ace to give the Lasers a 25-22 advantage.
Irvine Valley moved out to a 29-24 lead on a block by freshman middle blocker Ted Slaughter on Santa Barbara’s top player, Oliver Curtis.
And two points later sophomore outside hitter Cory Walker’s kill gave Irvine Valley a two games to one lead.
Santa Barbara won the third game behind Oliver’s efforts.
He recorded back-to-back kills to wrap up the game.
With the fourth game tied, 10-10, Irvine Valley went on an 8-1 run to take the lead for good.
Santa Barbara made a late run, getting within 23-21 on a kill by Oliver and stayed within two points of IVC through the end of the game.
Ahead, 29-27, the Lasers got a kill by freshman middle blocker Bryan Simmons to end it.
Simmons led the Lasers in kills for the first time this season with 15 kills. In the team’s previous five contests, Johnson had been the kill leader.
Simmons also hit .667 in the match (15 kills - 3 errors - 18 attempts). Johnson added 11 kills and six blocks. Slaughter had six kills and a team-high seven blocks. Freshman libero Sean Grubbs led the team in digs with eight and Rex contributed 40 assists and six digs.
Irvine Valley now has a week off before it plays again. The Lasers open up Pacific Coast Conference play (conference has been changed from the Orange Empire to Pacific Coast because there are a majority four teams – of the seven - from the San Diego area) Wednesday, March 7 at San Diego Mesa at 7 p.m.