Women's volleyball team off to state tourney
Nov 29, 2008
The Irvine Valley women's volleyball team is headed to the State Championships for the fourth time in program history.
The Lasers beat Orange Empire Conference rival Cypress for the third time this season, winning 25-17, 25-18, 25-13, in a Southern California Regional Final at Cypress Saturday night.
The last time Irvine Valley advanced to the state event was in 2005. It also made trips in 1999 and 2003.
The Lasers will be one of four teams from Southern California to join four teams from Northern California at the State Championships Dec. 5-7 at Pasadena City College.
"We were efficient on offense and steady on defense," IVC coach Tom Pestolesi said after the win over Cypress. "We just didn't make a mistake tonight."
The Orange Empire Conference champion Lasers, who were the fifth seed in the playoffs and ranked eighth in the state, improved their record to 18-5 overall with the win.
Freshman outside hitter Casey Williams led Irvine Valley with 12 kills.
"She hit a couple of kills after long rallies that really took the wind out of their sails," Pestolesi said.
But it was a total team effort for the Lasers.
Freshman middle blockers Kelsey Hall and Carly Loucks combined for 14 kills. Those 14 kills came in 23 attempts without an error for a .609 combined hitting percentage.
IVC hit .327 as a team on the night.
"Allie (Hammer) set a great match and Mar (Guadagnini) did a good job on defense," Pestolesi said. "She stayed home and had nine digs.
"Alyssa Swatek, Amanda (Donaldson) and Nichole (May) also played great on defense. They really stayed where we asked them to on the court. We dug a lot of volleyballs."
IVC was also super solid receiving serve.
"We only had two service receptions all night that we didn't then get a swing on," he said. "We were consistent with everything we did tonight."
Irvine Valley will find out on Sunday who it plays in the opening round at the state tournament and match times for that first round should be decided on Monday.