Men's volleyball takes out San Diego City
Apr 11, 2007
The Irvine Valley men's volleyball team kept pace at the top of the Pacific Coast Conference standings with an easy three-game victory over San Diego City Wednesday night at home.
The Lasers came out on top, 30-19, 30-25, 30-25.
Outside hitter Peter Johnson led the way with 11 kills, four digs and two aces and middle blocker Ted Slaughter finished with 11 kills.
Outside hitter Marcus Fernandez had eight kills and outside hitter Cory Walker came off the bench to finish with eight kills.
"Cory stepped up big tonight," Irvine Valley Coach Tom Pestolesi said. "It was good to see him get in there and do so well."
Middle blocker Bryan Simmons had six kills and four blocks for IVC. Libero Sean Grubbs added 12 digs and setter Tyler Rex contributed 44 assists, three digs and two aces.
Rex set Slaughter for a kill to finish off game three and the match.
The win was Irvine Valley's fourth in a row and improved its record to 13-3 overall and 8-2 in conference.
The match Wednesday night was much different than the first time the Lasers took on San Diego City.
Irvine Valley had to hold off the Knights in five games on the road last month.
"In that match we didn't play well at all," Pestolesi said. "San Diego City battled and we were off our game. There was no intensity, we hit balls out all over the place. We didn't show up to play.
"Tonight we played much better. We have been playing a lot better lately. The focus is there."
The Lasers hope to continue to play well with the conference title still on the line.
With two matches left in conference play, Irvine Valley, which is the defending conference champion, is in a three-way tie for first place with Orange Coast and Grossmont.
The Lasers play at Palomar on Friday and then close out the regular season with a match at home next Wednesday against Grossmont at 6 p.m. That match will determine the conference title.
According to Pestolesi, Orange Coast should win the rest of its matches, so the winner of the match with Grossmont and Irvine Valley next Wednesday will share the conference title with OCC and get a bye in the first round of the Southern California Regional Playoffs.