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Men's volleyball team wins second straight state title
Apr 27, 2008
The Irvine Valley men's volleyball team rolled to a three-game sweep of Pacific Coast Conference rival Orange Coast College on Saturday night to capture the 2008 California Community College Athletic Association Men's Volleyball Championship at Irvine Valley College.
Irvine Valley won its second consecutive state title after taking Long Beach City in five games in 2007 at Santa Monica College.
But things were a bit easier in '08 for head coach Tom Pestolesi's Lasers. Heading into the championship final, IVC had rolled to sweeps in 13 of its previous 17 victories. And only Orange Coast had forced Irvine Valley to play five games in a match this season.
IVC cruised to the sweep by scores of 30-24, 30-23, and 30-19 over Orange Coast for the championship. It was the third time IVC defeated the Pirates this season.
State tournament most valuable player Peter Johnson led the way with a match-high 22 kills.
Johnson, a sophomore outside hitter, is a two-time Pacific Coast Conference player of the year.
According to Pestolesi, Johnson was the difference in the match.
"What can you say about Peter," Pestolesi said. "Whenever we needed a clutch kill or dig, he came up with it."
Pestolesi was also proud to announce that Johnson had signed his national letter of intent before the match to play next season at UC San Diego.
In the opening game, Orange Coast led early before IVC rallied to take the lead. OCC stayed close, getting within two points at 22-20. But Irvine Valley scored five of the next seven points to jump ahead 26-21 and rolled to the win.
Game two saw an impressive stretch by Johnson.
After OCC went ahead 4-1, Irvine Valley fought back and got within one point at 7-6 before Johnson took over by scoring IVC's next five points. Irvine Valley built a commanding 22-15 lead before cruising for the win.
And in game three, Irvine Valley surged out to a 7-2 advantage and never looked back. Johnson had eight kills in game three to pace the Lasers. A net violation by Orange Coast on match point gave IVC the state championship win.
"This team did everything we asked them to," said Pestolesi. "We knew we had the talent to be successful this season. It was just a matter of the players and coaches trusting each other."
"We knew Orange Coast was going to be tough," he added. "Kevin Welch willed that team to win. He made everyone a better player on the team."
Welch, who shared conference player of the year honors this season with IVC's Johnson, led Orange Coast with 19 kills. Grant Keene added nine kills, Corey Ferraro paced OCC with 36 assists, and Andrew Pizula led the Pirates with seven digs.
Orange Coast closed its season with a 15-7 overall record.
Irvine Valley, which captured its third state title in program history (1993, 2007) concluded its championship season with an 18-2 overall record.
Freshman outside hitter Reese Haine added 11 kills, sophomore outside hitter Tim Golden chipped in six kills, sophomore libero Kaleo Baxter had six digs and freshman setter Phil Younglove totaled 44 assists.
Games 1 2 3
Orange Coast 24 23 19
Irvine Valley 30 30 30
Final Records: Irvine Valley 18-2; Orange Coast 15-7
2008 ALL-STATE TOURNAMENT TEAM
Peter Johnson, Irvine Valley - MVP
Reese Haine, Irvine Valley
Kaleo Baxter, Irvine Valley
Kevin Welch, Orange Coast
Andrew Pizula, Orange Coast
Casey Bennett, Long Beach
Collin Williamson, Santa Monica
*Thanks to Men's Volleyball State Championship Sports Information Director Chris Ruiz of Long Beach City College for helping to put together this report.
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