Irvine Valley's women's volleyball team cruised to a win at Riverside in an Orange Empire Conference match on the road on Friday night.
The 25-17, 25-19, 25-9 victory was Irvine Valley's 16th in a row this season and 14th sweep overall on the year.
IVC, which is ranked No. 2 in the state and No. 1 in Southern California, improved its record to 16-0 overall and 9-0 in the Orange Empire Conference.
Riverside fell to 6-12 overall and 3-6 in conference.
Irvine Valley sits two matches in front of Cypress for first place.
The win on Friday was Irvine Valley's 32nd in a row over Riverside.
But it was a back and forth match over the first two sets.
In the first set, Riverside led briefly at 9-8, before IVC scored five straight points to take a 13-9 lead. Irvine Valley never trailed again in the set.
In the second set, the Tigers forged an 18-14 lead before the Lasers scored eight straight points for a 22-18 advantage, en route to the 25-19 win.
The third set saw Riverside lead briefly at 4-2, before Irvine Valley scored the next seven points for a 9-4 lead.
After a IVC service error, the Lasers scored 12 straight points for a 21-5 lead.
"Riverside played really well in the first two sets," IVC coach Tom Pestolesi said. "They were digging everything. We really had to work for wins in those sets. The third set was all about Annie (Mitchem). She just dominated."
Mitchem, IVC's sophomore All-American middle blocker and defending conference player of the year, finished with a match-high 15 kills. She also had 11 digs, one block, one ace and two assists and hit .681 on the night.
Sophomore outside hitter Marisa Doran finished with 12 kills and 12 digs, while freshman middle blocker Hannah Matt had six kills and one block.
Sophomore outside hitter Kobi Pekich recorded a team-high 14 digs and sophomore setter Hailey Jones had 33 assists and eight digs.
Irvine Valley hit .336 as a team in the match.
Irvine Valley plays again on Wednesday at Santa Ana at 7 p.m. and then hosts Saddleback on Friday at 6 p.m.
