Women's volleyball team moves closer to conference title

Courtesy of Toni Lavacot
Courtesy of Toni Lavacot

Irvine Valley's women's volleyball team moved a step closer to an Orange Empire Conference title with a sweep at Saddleback on Tuesday night.

The Lasers remained in first place in the conference standings - one match ahead of Cypress - with two contests left in the regular season.

Irvine Valley hosts second-place Cypress on Friday at 6 p.m. and then plays at Orange Coast next Wednesday.

With a win on Friday over Cypress, Irvine Valley could claim the title outright.

IVC has won the conference championship the last two years.

Irvine Valley, ranked 19th in the state, improved its record to 13-5 overall and 10-2 in conference with the 25-15, 25-15, 25-11 win over Saddleback on Tuesday.

It was IVC's 10th sweep of the season. Irvine Valley has recorded eight of those in conference and four of them in its last five matches.

The Lasers hit .462 on the night and were paced by freshman right side Olivia Aguilar, who had 14 kills and hit an impressive .722. She had just one error in 18 attempts.

Sophomore outside hitter Hannah Matt finished with 10 kills and hit .500, sophomore outside hitter Kayla Scheevel had eight kills, 12 digs and two aces and freshman middle blocker Hailey Riden finished with six kills and hit .462.

Sophomore libero Emily Reinking ended with 14 digs and four aces and sophomore setter Jenna Olbright contributed 40 aces, seven digs and two aces.

As a team, Irvine Valley had 12 aces in the match.