Men's volleyball team heads into playoffs with a sweep

Men's volleyball team heads into playoffs with a sweep

Irvine Valley's men's volleyball team ended the regular season with an easy 25-6, 25-8, 25-16 Pacific Coast Conference win over San Diego City on Friday.

The Lasers will now prepare for the Regional Playoffs.

They will play in a regional final at Long Beach City next Friday at 6 p.m.

The winner will move on to the State Championships the following week at Santiago Canyon College.

Irvine Valley finished the regular season with a record of 12-7 overall. The Lasers were 8-4 in conference, which was good for third place.

Orange Coast won the conference with a mark of 10-1. Grossmont was second at 9-3.

Against San Diego City on Friday, a number of players contributed in the win.

Freshman middle blocker Matt Mittry finished with nine kills and hit .727. Freshman opposite Davis Cannon had eight kills and hit .778 and freshman outside hitter Josh Schmidt and freshman middle blocker Kevin Vaz each had five kills.

IVC ended up hitting .446 as a team.

Vaz, sophomore middle blocker Taylor Kempkes and Schmidt each added two blocks apiece.

Heading into the playoffs, the Lasers have won five of their last seven matches and three of the last four. The only loss in the final four contests was to conference-champion Orange Coast.

Irvine Valley played Long Beach City earlier this season (Feb. 21) and lost, 25-20, 25-21, 25-20.

Freshman outside hitter Cole Murray paced IVC in that contest with 12 kills. Vaz added nine kills.