Beach volleyball team rolls in conference sweeps at Newland

Beach volleyball team rolls in conference sweeps at Newland

The Irvine Valley women's volleyball team continued to shine against Orange Empire Conference opponents Friday with two more victories.

The Lasers improved their record to 9-11 overall and 6-1 in the OEC with 5-0 wins over both Fullerton and Riverside at the Newland Courts in Huntington Beach.

It was also a sweet day for Myles Maugututia, who picked up his first two wins as Irvine Valley's interim head coach.

Maugututia is a former football and volleyball player at Standford University that has also played on the beach tour. Maugututia, who is also a trainer at the 949 volleyball club, had been coach Ryan Windisch's lead assistant this season.

With Windisch earning an assistant coaching job for the University of Arizona women's indoor program in early March, Maugututia took over.

And the Lasers didn't miss a beat last Friday.

It has been a standout two weeks for IVC with some lineup adjustments.

Irvine Valley has won five of its last six matches with the only defeat coming to the hands of a Mt. SAC squad that is 18-1 on the year. And even in that match on Mar. 31, three of the courts went to three sets.

Last Friday, Irvine Valley won each contest in straight sets.

The top pair of the day for Irvine Valley was the No. 3 team of sophomore Angie Griego and freshman Tessa Marocco, who gave up just 19 points total in two sweeps. The duo won their first match against Fullerton, 21-3, 21-3.

Irvine Valley's No. 1 pair of sophomores Chloe Swanson and Barett Nolan earned, 21-10, 21-10, and, 21-8, 21-15 wins.

Freshman Sydney Dews and sophomore Gabi Brown on the second court picked up two sweeps.

Against Fullerton, freshmen Mia Bertolone and Kayla Torres won, 21-8, 21-7, in the fourth position and versus Riverside the team of sophomores Kendall Fraser and Alessandra Nitogilia came out on top, 21-7, 21-14 on the fourth court.

IVC earned defaults against both Fullerton and Riverside at the fifth spot.

Irvine Valley plays again on Friday when it hosts Riverside at 10 a.m. and Saddleback at noon in conference contests.