The Irvine Valley women’s volleyball team made it a little tougher than it needed to be, but still came out with a four-game win over San Diego Mesa in a non-conference match Wednesday night at Irvine Valley.

The Lasers came out on top, 31-29, 30-23, 23-30, 30-28 to improve their record to 2-0 on the season.

“It was a really good win,” IVC Coach Tom Pestolesi said. “San Diego Mesa is always a good team and a perennial conference champion. They were fourth in the state last year and are well coached."

Irvine Valley nearly let two games slip away in the victory. The Lasers had trouble closing out the first and fourth games.

IVC held a 28-22 lead in the opening game before San Diego Mesa rallied to tie the score at 29-29. The Lasers won the next two points to take game one.

The Lasers were solid throughout in taking the second game. IVC tried to make it a three-game sweep. It led the third game, 10-9, before San Diego Mesa took command.
The Olympians scored three straight points and went ahead, 12-10, on an IVC hitting error.

The Lasers briefly tied things up at 12-12, but never got that close again in the game. San Diego Mesa led by as many as nine points in the game before winning, 30-23, on a kill by Ashton O’Halloran.

But the Lasers came right back in game four, grabbing an 18-12 lead on an ace by freshman outside hitter Camryn Torromeo.
The Olympians didn’t go away, closing to within 19-17.

IVC then took a 24-18 lead on a kill by sophomore outside hitter Chelsea Pavlik. But the Lasers once again had problems putting the Olympians away.

The Lasers went ahead, 28-23, on a tip kill by freshman middle blocker Jillyan Mina. San Diego Mesa then won five straight points, three of them coming on IVC hitting errors, to tie the game at 28-28.

But the Lasers collected themselves and won two straight points, the first on a kill by Guadagnini and the match-winner on a kill by Pavlik.

"Overall it was a solid team effort on our part and I really liked that everyone contributed in the victory," Pestolesi said.

Pavlik led the way with 24 kills and eight digs. Mina added 18 kills and six blocks, freshman outside hitter Mari Guadagnini finished with 11 kills and Torromeo had a nice all-around performance with nine kills, seven digs, four blocks and three aces.

Freshman libero Amanda Donaldson paced the team in digs with 14 and sophomore defensive specialist Brooke Bryant contributed eight digs. Freshman defensive specialist Jamie Lyons sparked the team in the fourth game with two digs and an ace on three straight points and finished with three digs and two aces overall.

And sophomore setter Kelly Keating had 56 assists.

Irvine Valley plays again on Friday, traveling to College of the Canyons for a non-conference match at 5 p.m.