Women's volleyball team drops first match of season

Courtesy of Toni Lavacot
Courtesy of Toni Lavacot

Irvine Valley's women's volleyball team ran into a tough MiraCosta squad last Friday on the road.

Irvine Valley, the defending state champion, dropped its first match of the season and first since 2013.

MiraCosta came out on top, 25-18, 25-18, 25-22.

Irvine Valley's record slipped to 1-1 on the season.

"We didn't play great, but MiraCosta was really good," IVC coach Tom Pestolesi said. "Give them a lot of credit. We just still have a lot to work on."

IVC hit .288 as team compared to .233 for MiraCosta, but the Spartans finished with 10 more kills (39 to 29) and came up with 44 digs and had 10 aces in the match.

Irvine Valley was paced by sophomore outside hitter Kayla Scheevel, who had nine kills, five digs and two aces. She also hit .304.

Freshman middle blocker Kayla Shields also had a strong match. She finished with seven kills in 10 attempts, hitting .700 and had two blocks.

Sophomore outside hitter Hannah Matt provided seven kills and three digs, sophomore libero Emily Reinking added 10 digs and sophomore setter Jenna Olbright had 24 assists.

MiraCosta was paced by Breanna Kirklen, who had nine kills, Brianna Sizemore and Elayna Cramer, who each finished with eight kills and Jessica Zieg, who had 31 assists and three aces.

Irvine Valley will try to bounce back on Wednesday when it hosts College of the Canyons at 5 p.m.

Canyons has a record of 3-0 so far this year, having beat El Camino in four sets, Grossmont in four sets and Victory Valley in three sets.