Irvine Valley's men's volleyball team was sharp on Wednesday night at home.
The Lasers, who earned the No. 1 ranking in the state in the coaches poll this week, improved their record to 7-1 overall with a 25-19, 25-23, 25-19 non-conference win over No. 6 San Diego Miramar.
Irvine Valley played some of its best volleyball of the season, hitting .420 as a team on the night.
Ahead, 15-10, in the opening set, IVC scored five of the next eight points and went up, 20-13, on a hitting error by the Jets.
A tip winner by freshman outside hitter Zach McEntire put Irvine Valley up, 23-15. Miramar got within 24-19, but a serve in the net by the Jets ended the set.
The second set was much closer with IVC having to pull it out at the end.
The set was tied at 22 after a kill by Miramar's Parker Brown. But Irvine Valley got back on track with two straight points. Miramar served out and then freshman outside hitter Damon Kooiman came up with a big block for a point.
And two points later, sophomore opposite Demetre Gossett ripped a kill down the line to put Irvine Valley up in sets, 2-0.
The Lasers led from the start in the third set. And they ran off five straight points midway through (three aces by sophomore libero Adam Schulte and two kills by sophomore middle blocker Julio Gutierrez) to really take control and lead, 19-10.
A kill by Kooiman made it a 22-13 set and another kill by Kooiman lifted IVC within two points of the win at 23-15.
Freshman middle blocker Chris Rivera's kill moved the Lasers to match point and two points later Kooiman and Rivera combined for a block to finish up the sweep.
Gossett ended with nine kills and McEntire and Kooiman each had seven kills. Freshman setter Kaina Alvarez ended with 24 assists and six digs and sophomore libero Adam Schulte had nine digs.
The match took one hour and 16 minutes.
Irvine Valley is home again on Friday at 6 p.m. taking on a winless Grossmont squad.
