Men's volleyball team responds with solid win over Mesa

Courtesy of Toni Lavacot
Courtesy of Toni Lavacot

Irvine Valley's men's volleyball team bounced back from a tough last week by crushing San Diego Mesa in a Pacific Coast Athletic Conference match at home on Friday night.

Irvine Valley beat the Olympians, 25-17, 25-16, 25-20, in a match that took just a little over an hour.

The Lasers remained in third place in conference with the victory, improving their record to 12-4 overall and 10-2 in conference.

IVC is a match behind Orange Coast and Grossmont for first place.

Irvine Valley closes out the regular season next week at Golden West on Wednesday and then hosts Orange Coast on Dig Pink night next Friday at 6 p.m.

The Lasers, who were coming off a disappointing five-set loss to Grossmont at home last Friday, had no problem against San Diego Mesa.

IVC raced out to big leads in all three sets and never looked back.

Freshman middle blocker Robert Ryley led the way with 11 kills. He also hit .600 in the match.

Ryley closed out the third and final set with a cross-court kill.

Sophomore outside hitter Cole Murray added 10 kills for IVC.

Sophomore setter and opposite Arek Halaj had 16 assists and freshman setter Jake Adams finished with 15 assists.

Sophomore libero Billy Crow had a team-high seven digs and sophomore middle blocker Kevin Dell contributed four aces and four digs for the Lasers.