View the complete photo gallery of the luncheon event here
Irvine Valley women's volleyball player Marisa Doran and men's volleyball player Cole Murray were honored as Irvine Valley's scholar athletes of the year at a luncheon hosted by the Exchange Club of Irvine last week at the Irvine Marriott.
The two Irvine Valley scholar athletes were joined by friends and family as well as IVC Director of Volleyball Tom Pestolesi and Irvine Valley Dean and Athletic Director Keith Shackleford.
Doran and Murray also each received a scholarship award from Irvine Valley's Foundation.
Doran was one of the best volleyball players to come through the Irvine Valley program.
She has earned a number of accolades, including being named first team all-Orange Empire Conference the last two seasons during the indoor season in the fall.
The sophomore outside hitter helped the Lasers to a magical 2014 fall season.
Under coach Tom Pestolesi, IVC won the fifth Orange Empire Conference title in program history, captured all 27 of its matches on the year and won the program's first ever State Championship.
IVC defeated defending champion Cabrillo for the title and Doran finished with 17 kills, hit .395 and added 14 digs and three blocks
Doran was selected all-Southern California region for the first time following the season.
She ranked 28th in the state in total kills with 293, 28th in hitting percentage at .320 and 38th in kills per set at 3.41.
Doran was also picked first team all-conference two years in a row. She helped Irvine Valley's indoor team record a 51-2 record the past two seasons.
She was also a star sand volleyball player at Irvine Valley and helped Irvine Valley win the inaugural CCCAA state title this spring.
IVC topped Grossmont, Golden West and Cabrillo in the state sand event at Irvine Valley College.
She played on Irvine Valley's No. 1 pairs team with fellow sophomore Kobi Pekich.
Doran followed up that sand team state title with an individual title the next day.
Doran and Pekich won a tough battle over Grossmont's team of Lauren Hays and Lexi Reddick, 21-18, 18-21, 15-12 for an individual state title.
She has also been special off of the court. She finished with a 4.0 cumulative grade point average at Irvine Valley and graduated with an AA in biology.
And she was the athletic program's Orange Empire Conference Character Champion award winner following the 2013-14 season.
The award is given to the student athlete who displays sportsmanship, respect, caring, fairness, civility, honesty, integrity and responsibility. She was selected after showing the ability to juggle school, indoor and sand volleyball, as well as community service.
Doran, who prepped at Villa Park High, has signed with the University of New Mexico and will play both indoor and sand volleyball there.
Murray was one of the best community college men's volleyball players in the state the past two seasons.
Murray was a two-year starter as an outside hitter for the Lasers.
During Murray's freshman season, he helped the Lasers reach the CCCAA State Championships tournament in 2014 and was named to the all-tournament team.
Murray finished with 14 kills (hit an amazing 1.000) in IVC's dramatic five-set quarterfinal win at Long Beach City and then had 10 kills in IVC's loss to Orange Coast in the state semifinals.
On the season, Murray averaged 2.98 kills per set and hit .311. He ranked second on the team in both kills and kills per set.
Murray was named second team all-Pacific Coast Athletic Conference in 2014.
This past season, Murray led Irvine Valley in a number of categories.
He ended up with 205 total kills and averaged 3.53 kills per set. Murray also averaged 0.93 digs per set and paced the squad in service aces with 24. He ranked fifth in the state in aces per set at 0.41.
The 6-4 Murray had double figure kills 13 of the 16 matches he played in with a season-high 22 coming in a tough five-game loss at Santa Barbara City.
He was named first team all-conference for his efforts. Irvine Valley finished with a record of 13-6 in 2015 and made the State Championship quarterfinals.
Murray prepped at Northwood High School in Irvine and was a standout volleyball and basketball player there for the Timberwolves.
Off the court, Murray was a two-year scholar athlete for the Lasers.
He recently signed with Loyola University Chicago.
Loyola captured its second straight national title last month, becoming just the fourth school in the tournament's 45-year history to win back-to-back NCAA championships.
He plans on majoring in communications at Loyola with a minor in sports management.