Last season, Irvine Valley's men's volleyball team stormed back from two sets down to beat Santa Barbara City in five sets at IVC.
The Vaqueros returned the favor Wednesday night and handed Irvine Valley its second straight defeat to start the 2014 season.
Irvine Valley won the first two sets, but Santa Barbara City took the next three, 23-25, 24-26, 25-22, 25-22, 15-12, at Irvine Valley. Santa Barbara City remained unbeaten on the season at 2-0.
"That is two matches in a row where we have made the same mistakes over and over," IVC coach Ki Yi said. "The talent is there with this team. It is just really frustrating to watch right now."
Irvine Valley made 35 hitting errors in the match on Wednesday night. That followed 30 hitting errors in a four-set loss to Moorpark last week.
Freshman outside hitter AJ Hammer led the Lasers with 14 kills. Freshman opposite Davis Cannon added 13 kills, freshman outside hitter Cole Murray finished with 12 kills and freshman middle blocker Marcus Dillon had 10 kills for the Lasers. Freshman libero Ryan Spector finished with a team-high 14 digs and freshman setter Steven Duhoux had 40 assists for IVC.
Santa Barbara City was paced by Evan Yoshimoto, who ended with 20 kills. He also contributed nine blocks. Owen Yoshimoto chipped in 12 kills, Jack Shields had four aces and Drew Hogan ended with 45 assists.
All five sets were close. Irvine Valley scored four of the final six points to take the first set. Murray closed the set out with a crosscourt kill.
Irvine Valley led the second set, 24-20, but Santa Barbara City scored four points in a row to tie things up, 24-24.
Cannon then came through with two kills in a row to give the Lasers the set.
The third set was tied, 19-19, when Santa Barbara City got kills by Evan Yoshimoto and Owen Yoshimoto to go ahead, 21-19. The Vaqueros held on to that lead the rest of the way and picked up the set when IVC made a serving error.
Santa Barbara led by as many as five points (22-17) in the fourth set, before Irvine Valley pulled within 22-20 on a kill by Cannon.
But the Vaqueros came back with two straight points, including a kill by Hogan to make it 24-20. They closed out the set three points later on a kill by Davis Grininger.
The Lasers jumped out to a 7-3 lead in the fifth set behind two kills by Hammer and a combo block by freshman middle blocker Kevin Vaz and Duhoux.
Santa Barbara City wasn't done, however. The Vaqueros scored six points in a row, capping their run with a kill by Evan Yoshimoto and a block by Yoshimoto and Grininger to take a 9-7 lead.
Santa Barbara City never trailed again in the set. The Vaqueros got to match point at 14-10 on a kill by Grininger.
Irvine Valley scored two straight points and got to within 14-12 on a block by Dillon.
But a kill by Evan Yoshimoto finished off the match.
Irvine Valley will go after its first win of the season on Friday when it travels to Santa Monica for a non-conference match.