The Irvine Valley men's volleyball team will face defending champion Long Beach City in the final of the 2007 California Community Colleges Commission on Athletics Men's Volleyball Championship at Santa Monica College.
The state title match is set for 7 pm on Saturday, April 28.
Long Beach was a 3-1 winner over Orange Coast College while Irvine Valley outlasted Pierce College in a five-game match to earn its trip to the final.
Irvine Valley and Long Beach met in the 1993 state championship match, with IVC pulling out the 3-1 win for the school's only title. Earlier this season, Long Beach defeated Irvine Valley 3-1 in Long Beach on February 16.
Irvine Valley needed five games to edge Pierce College in Friday's first semifinal match.
IVC triumphed by scores of 30-24, 28-30, 38-36, 28-30, and 15-7 to advance to its first state championship final match since 1993 and improve its record to 16-3 overall.
Trailing 13-7 in the first game, Irvine Valley put together a 9-4 run and eventually outscored Pierce by a 23-11 margin the rest of the way to take the opener.
Game two was evenly matched. Irvine Valley held a narrow 12-10 lead before Pierce outpaced the Lasers 13-7 and held on for the close win.
The highlight of the match was an epic game three that IVC pulled out for a 38-36 win. Irvine Valley trailed for most of game three before finally retaking the lead at 27-26. Leading 29-28, IVC was unable to put away the Brahmas. Irvine Valley had nine tries at game point before libero Sean Grubbs' ace gave the Lasers the win.
"That was the match," Irvine Valley head coach Tom Pestolesi said referring to game three. "Most teams that win game 3 go on to win the match. We were more aggressive with them and made some tough serves. It was exciting to watch because it was good, clean volleyball."
Pierce came out flat early in game four, but recovered to win and force a deciding fifth game.
In he fifth, IVC opened up with a 6-3 lead and never looked back. Middle blocker Ted Slaughter had six of his 16 kills in the fifth game to help lead the Lasers to the win.
Outside hitter Peter Johnson led IVC with 19 kills and added 12 digs. Grubbs posted 13 digs and three aces, while Slaughter added nine blocks.
The loss ended Pierce's season with a 13-5 overall record. Outside hitter Ryan Duncan led the Brahmas with 17 kills. Middle blocker Joseph Papadopoulos added 15 kills and 10 blocks.