Men's volleyball team plays best match of season
Mar 29, 2008
The Irvine Valley men's volleyball team picked the right time to play its best match of the season.
The Lasers all but wrapped up the Pacific Coast Conference title by sweeping Golden West Friday night at home.
Irvine Valley improved its record to 13-1 overall and 8-0 in conference with the 30-27, 30-21, 30-16 victory.
The win moved the Lasers two matches ahead of both Golden West and Orange Coast in the conference standings with just four contests to play.
Golden West was a hot team heading into the match, having won six straight contests. The Rustlers hadn't lost since the Lasers defeated them in three games earlier in the season.
It was the same outcome on Friday.
Irvine Valley hit an impressive .551 as a team with 47 kills to just nine errors in 69 attempts.
Sophomore outside hitter and defending conference player of the year Peter Johnson led the way with 18 kills to only one error in 25 attempts for a .680 hitting percentage. Johnson added four blocks in the match.
Sophomore middle blocker Adam El-Rakabawy added 11 kills and hit .643 (11-2-14) and sophomore outside hitter Morgan Suttich had nine kills and hit .538 (9-2-13) and added six digs for IVC.
Freshman middle blocker Nick Martus chipped in with six kills and three blocks, sophomore libero Kaleo Baxter had seven digs and freshman setter Phil Younglove ran the offense with 38 assists.
Irvine Valley is on the road for both matches this week, starting with a contest at Orange Coast on Wednesday at 6 p.m. The Lasers beat the Pirates in three-straight games the first time the two teams met, but OCC was without top player Kevin Welch.