The Irvine Valley men's volleyball team missed its first two matches of the 2021 season against Fullerton in mid April because of health and safety protocols.
But, the two squads were able to make-up a match on Monday night. And, it was a super, important Orange Empire Conference contest.
With Orange Coast, Irvine Valley and Fullerton looking like they will be among the top three teams in the conference, and the top two schools receiving advantages in the OEC tournament that will be played May 19th (quarters), 21st (semis) and 26th (championship), a lot was on the line Monday.
The Lasers didn't play their best match of the season, but battled throughout for a 25-20, 25-17, 25-18 victory to stay undefeated.
Irvine Valley improved its record to 4-0 overall and 3-0 in conference. IVC and Orange Coast are now undefeated so far through the season.
The Lasers got a big performance from freshman outside hitter Colin Chillingworth. He had 13 kills, hit .333, recorded five digs and three blocks and scored 17.5 points.
Freshman outside hitter JT Demure added 10 kills and 12 digs and hit .368, freshman libero Adam Schulte had eight digs and four aces, freshman middle blocker Trevor Weinert ended with five blocks and freshman setter Andrew Perez ran the offense with 27 assists.
Irvine Valley closed out the match in the third set with a 12-7 run.
The set was tied at 13 when Demure had a kill and Weinert came through with an ace to give IVC the lead for good.
In the final stretch of the third set, freshman opposite Julio Gutierrez had a block, Chillingworth followed with a kill, Schulte contributed with two aces and kept several points alive and Perez had a huge solo block to move the match to set point.
Fullerton hit out to end the match.
Irvine Valley still has more work to do this week with two upcoming matches. The Lasers play at home on Wednesday, hosting Golden West in a conference match at 6 p.m and then are at Golden West on Friday at 6 p.m.
