Former Irvine Valley indoor and beach volleyball standout Lea Kruse saw her career at Hawai'i come to a close recently when the Rainbow Wahine were knocked out of the NCAA Tournament at Gulf Shores, Ala.
The squad saw its season come to a close with a 3-1 loss to Loyola Marymount in the opening round of the NCAA Championship.
The Rainbow Wahine, who earned an NCAA bid for the sixth time, concluded the season with a 27-9 record.
After having its match postponed due to weather late Friday (May 5), the team returned to the court Saturday morning. Despite the early start, both squads came out energized with the No. 6 seed Lions ultimately ousting the No. 11 Rainbow Wahine from the NCAAs for the second straight year in a hotly contested match.
Kruse played on the fifth court along with teammate Sarah Burton in the contest.
Kruse spent time playing at the No. 2, 3, 4 and 5 spots in the Hawai'i lineup this season.
The graduate student finished 9-11 overall on the year.
Kruse recently graduated from the university with a degree in educational psychology.
At IVC, Kruse was a star player both indoors and on the sand.
In 2018-19, she was named co-Most Valuable Player of the Orange Empire Conference in both beach and indoor, while also helping lead Irvine Valley to Orange Empire Conference titles during both campaigns.
On the beach in the spring of 2019, Kruse led IVC to an unblemished conference record and a No. 3 state ranking in the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) final poll and was named the team of the year as part of the IVC athletic department's 19th Annual Awards.
Irvine Valley ended with a record of 17-8 overall and won an Orange Empire Conference with a mark of 10-0. IVC ended up going 15-1 against community college opponents.
Kruse and teammate Renata Bath (who went on to play indoor at UC Riverside) also finished third in the individual pairs portion of the state championship at the Elite Athlete Training Center in Chula Vista.
Kruse, for her part, didn't lose a match in the sand during team dual play against community college opponents on the season, going 16-0 (15-0) with Bath. And only three of those dual team set wins went to three sets.
Kruse and Bath also picked up several impressive wins against four-year colleges, including beating duos from Nebraska, Grand Canyon, Missouri State, Concordia and Westcliff.
Kruse and the women's beach volleyball team was honored by the AVCA with a Team Academic Award for the 2019 season. The award, which was initiated in the 1992-93 academic year, honors collegiate and high school volleyball teams that displayed excellence in the classroom during the school year by maintaining at least a 3.30 cumulative team grade-point average on a 4.0 scale.
During the 2018 and 2-019 years with indoor at Irvine Valley, Kruse helped the Lasers to a combined record of 49-3 and two trips to the state tournament. IVC fell in the semifinals in 2018 and finished as the runner-up to Feather River after a thrilling, five-set match in 2019.
She repeated as co-MVP in the OEC in 2019 and was also named an all-Southern California Region selection in both 2018 and 2019.
Kruse averaged 3.63 kills, 3.70 digs and 0.63 aces per set in 2019 for Irvine Valley and recorded 21 matches with at least 10 kills, including the final 10 contests of the year.
And her efforts in both indoor and beach volleyball, Kruse was named Irvine Valley's Women's Athlete of the Year as a freshman for the 2018-19 school year.
LMU 3 Hawai'i 1
1. Paul/Prihti (LMU) led Van Sickle/Glagau (UH) 13-21, 21-11, 14-13
2. Wagoner/Loker (UH) def. Thorup/Garder (LMU) 21-17, 21-14
3. Ramirez/Reffel (LMU) def. Huddleston/Santer (UH) 19-21, 21-18, 15-8
4. Hooker/Chinn (LMU) def. Miller/Cowell (UH) 21-15, 21-19
5. Firnett/Tucker (LMU) def. Burton/Kruse (UH) 21-9, 22-20
