Irvine Valley knocks off Pirates in 4

IRVINE — The Orange Coast College women’s volleyball team served notice it might not be too willing to pass the torch of Orange Empire Conference supremacy to host Irvine Valley Friday night.

But, after the Pirates’ first-game victory, the Lasers proceeded to snatch it from the visitors and seemed to begin swinging it at their collective head. The result was a 25-30, 30-18, 30-17, 30-25 triumph that made IVC (14-0, 7-0 in conference) the likely heir to the conference throne.

Equally apparent was the fact that OCC (11-3, 5-2), the two-time defending state champion ranked No. 1 in the latest state poll (released Oct. 2), could be vacating the throne.

But Pirates Coach Chuck Cutenese isn’t willing to concede yet.

“The great thing about playing two rounds [in conference] is that you get to see everybody a second time,” Cutenese said. “I think Irvine Valley played extremely well, but we’ll see [the Lasers] in three weeks. We need to step up, work harder and play better. We’re a better team than showed up [Friday]. But the problem is [our best team] hasn’t been showing up.”

It was the second loss in its last three conference matches for OCC, which was swept at home by Golden West on Oct. 12.

Cutenese said Irvine Valley applied increased pressure with its serving and defense after Game 1, disallowing the Pirates to maintain offensive balance.

“We were able to pass the ball in the first game and when we pass the ball, we can run our offense and get everyone involved,” Cutenese said. “But in Games 2 and 3, [the Lasers] served very aggressively. We weren’t able to take care of [the service receive], we weren’t able to run our middle and our outside hitters were going up against two blockers.”

IVC had seven of its nine aces in the final game and finished with seven service winners.

OCC had just two aces, both by sophomore middle blocker Jessica Roy, and committed six service errors.

IVC also controlled the game at the net, behind powerful sophomore Chelsea Pavlik, who amassed 25 kills and also chipped in 10 digs.

Mari Guadagnini contributed 13 kills for the winners, who received 11 kills from Jessica Floyd. Kelly Keating had 55 assists for the Lasers.

Sophomore outside hitter Jacqi Reed led the Pirates with 15 kills, but was obviously frustrated at times.

Sophomore middle blocker Rebecca Lowe had 13 kills and a team-high three blocks, while Roy added 11 kills.

IVC’s control over the match came suddenly, as it seized a 5-1 lead in Game 2. Up, 14-12, in the same game, the Lasers scored 16 of the next 22 points to pull even on games.

IVC then continued its dominance, posting a 7-1 lead in Game 3. OCC closed within 8-5, but the hosts scored seven straight points to reestablish firm command and cruise to the win.

“I really think it came down to serving and passing and we were great at both tonight,” IVC Coach Tom Pestolesi said. “I thought we also played very good defense. Our volleyball skills are good. We are doing a good job with things like serving and passing and when you do those types of things you are going to be in every match.”

BARRY FAULKNER may be reached at (714) 966-4615 or at [email protected].