Irvine Valley mentioned as honoree by AVCA for beach coverage

Irvine Valley sports information was mentioned as an honoree by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) for its coverage of beach volleyball this past spring.

The mention was part of the year-end media awards by the AVCA.

Volleyball Magazine won the top award – the 2018-19 AVCA Grant Burger Media Award.

Finalists for the award came from a number of different mediums, including Sports Information Directors, Broadcast, Written Journalism, Social Media and College Student Reporter.

Irvine Valley was mentioned in the Two-Year College beach category.

UCLA was mentioned for NCAA Division I, Texas A&M Kingsville for Division II/III and Ottawa (AZ) for NAIA in the beach category.

The IVC women's beach volleyball team finished tied for third at the California Community College Athletic Association State Championship in May at the Elite Athlete Training Center in Chula Vista.

Irvine Valley ended the year with a record of 17-8 overall and won the Orange Empire Conference with a mark of 10-0 under coach Tom Pestolesi.

IVC ended up going 15-1 against community college opponents.

That one defeat came at the hands of Long Beach City, which beat Irvine Valley and moved on from pool play at the state championship in Chula Vista.

Irvine Valley also had four pairs reach the state championship - sophomore Renata Bath and freshman Lea Kruse, freshmen Anna Unke and Gabriela Griego, sophomores Alyssa Vortouni and Emilie Austin and freshmen Aliaina Gendale and Kendall Nolan reached the state event.

Bath and Kruse and Unke and Griego each made the final day on Saturay of the two-day pairs tournament.

Bath and Kruse battled and ended up finishing tied for third overall.

The full list and release by the AVCA can be seen here