In leading up to the start of the 2017-18 athletics campaign at Irvine Valley, which starts on Aug. 25 with the men's soccer team hosting Rio Hondo and the women's volleyball team hosting Citrus, the Laser athletic department will count down the top 10 IVC sports stories from the 2016-17 school year.
The No. 3 story was the slew of honors for the men's tennis team. There were championships and titles (more on those in the next day). Irvine Valley's men's tennis team had a season for the ages in the spring of 2017.
IVC went undefeated at 19-0, captured its third straight CCCAA State Championship and had players win singles and doubles state titles.
The Lasers earned the top state rankings across the board by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, being ranked No. 1 as a team, having four players ranked in the top 10 in the state in singles, including top-ranked and state singles champ Javier Callejo, and seeing two teams ranked in the top five in the state in doubles, led by the No. 1 sophomore duo of state champions Callejo and Lucas Lesoeur.
Irvine Valley added to its list of accomplishments recently with four singles players and two doubles teams being named ITA All-Americans for the California Community Colleges.
Callejo, freshman Wyatt DeMulling, Lesoeur and freshman Chris Politiek were named All-American in singles for IVC and the teams of Callejo and Lesoeur and DeMulling and Politiek were given All-American honors in doubles.
Vallejo won his second straight state title in singles, defeating Cypress' Vincent Reynaud, 6-3, 6-4, in the final in Ojai. He did so as the No. 9 seed in the event.
Lesoeur and Politiek each reached the semifinal round and DeMulling made the quarterfinals at the state tournament in singles. Politiek made the semis as the No. 11 seed, knocking off a No. 1 seed in the round of 16.
In doubles, Callejo and Lesoeur, who were seeded second, took down top-seeded Nikita Katnelson and Sasha Krasnov from Cerritos, 6-2, 6-4, for the state title.
DeMulling and Politiek reached the quarterfinals of the event. The duo went undefeated during the regular season and was named the co-Orange Empire Conference doubles team of the year.
Irvine Valley was also once again ranked No. 1 in the state in The Oracle/Intercollegiate Tennis Association California Community College Athletic Association final rankings for 2017.
The Lasers have won 35 straight matches and are 58-3 in the last three years with all three losses coming to four-year schools.
After Irvine Valley, Cypress finished second, Cerritos was ranked third, American River was fourth and Foothill was ranked fifth.
Irvine Valley also had the top-ranked singles player in the state. And it was an easy call.
Callejo won his second consecutive state singles title.
Irvine Valley had three other players finish in the top 10 singles rankings in the state. DeMulling was fifth, Lesoeur was ranked sixth and Politiek came in at seventh.
Freshman Leszek Mirecki was ranked No. 19 and sophomore Luis Castillo was ranked No. 35 for the Lasers.
In the doubles state rankings, Irvine Valley had two teams in the top five and three in the top 20.
The state champion duo of Callejo and Lesoeur were ranked No. 1.
It was the third year in a row that an Irvine Valley team had won the state title in doubles.
The IVC team of DeMulling and Politiek was ranked No. 5 in the state. DeMulling and Politiek were named co-doubles team of the year in the Orange Empire Conference.
And the team of Mirecki and sophomore Gavin Lynch was ranked No. 19.