Men's volleyball team wraps up regular season
Apr 12, 2008
The Irvine Valley men's volleyball team hopes it started a new winning streak on Friday.
Irvine Valley, which watched its 13-match winning streak come to a halt two days earlier, bounced back with a 3-1 (30-23, 30-13, 27-30, 30-24) win at Grossmont in a Pacific Coast Conference contest.
The win closed out the regular season for the Lasers. Irvine Valley improved its record to 16-2 overall and 11-1 in conference.
The Lasers had already clinched their second straight Pacific Coast Conference title and third conference title in a row (IVC won the Orange Empire Conference in 2006).
Against Grossmont, sophomore outside hitter Peter Johnson finished with 27 kills and five digs to lead the way. The 27 kills was a season-high for Johnson and the just the second time an IVC player had gone over 20 kills this season (Johnson did it on Feb. 27 against Moorpark with 21).
Freshman middle blocker Nick Martus had 12 kills and eight blocks and hit .529 for the night and freshman outside hitter Reese Haine added 10 kills and five digs.
Sophomore middle blocker Adam El-Rakabawy finished with eight kills and five blocks, sophomore libero Kaleo Baxter had a team-high seven digs and freshman setter Phil Younglove contributed 58 assists and seven blocks for IVC.
Irvine Valley now has nearly two weeks off before playing again. The Lasers host their alumni match next Wednesday, but won't face another official opponent until the state tournament.
By winning the conference title, the Lasers earned an automatic berth into the State Championships semifinals on Thursday, April 24. The state tournament is at Irvine Valley this year. The finals of the tournament are on Saturday, April 26.
Irvine Valley will learn its semifinal opponent after next Tuesday's regional final matches.