Irvine Valley's women's volleyball team passed one of its biggest tests so far this season with flying colors on Wednesday night.
The Lasers, ranked No. 2 in the state and No. 1 in Southern California, swept always tough Orange Coast, 25-16, 25-16, 25-19, in an Orange Empire Conference match on the road.
Orange Coast was ranked sixth in the latest state poll.
The Lasers (13-0 overall and 6-0 in conference) were led by 6-2 All-American middle blocker Annie Mitchem, who had 15 kills and four blocks.
Orange Coast, which saw its record slip to 10-2 overall and 4-2 in conference, was paced by Sierra Brown, Lehua Alama-Jordan and Danyelle Brown with seven kills each.
Coast jumped out with two straight points in the opening set -- just one of only a handful of times the Pirates were able to get multiple points against the big and deep Laser attack.
From there, it was all IVC as the Lasers went on a 13-7 run and grabbed the lead for good to take the first set comfortably.
Leading, 8-6, in the second set, Irvine Valley broke things open with a 9-3 run, pushing the lead up to 17-9.
Coast got within 18-13 only to see the Lasers close out the second set with a 7-3 run.
Kellie Kleszcz helped OCC take a 16-15 midway lead midway through the third set, but sophomore opposite Juju Cannon contributed to the IVC offense with four big kills down the stretch as the Lasers finished the night with a 10-3 run to end the match.
Cannon and sophomore outside hitter Marisa Doran each finsihed with nine kills. Cannon had her nine kills in 12 attempts with no errors for a .750 hitting percentage to lead the team.
IVC hit .365 as a team thanks to the efforts of sophomore setter Hailey Jones, who finished with 38 assists.
Sophomore outside hitter Kobi Pekich added 11 digs and five kills and freshman libero Kayla Scheevel conributed 10 digs for IVC.
Irvine Valley plays another match on the road this week against another top team on Friday. The Lasers are at No. 7 Fullerton for a 6 p.m. match. The Hornets had a 4-2 conference record heading into this week. Fullerton swept Golden West last week.
