Irvine Valley's women's volleyball team recorded its second big Orange Empire Conference win in a row with a 25-20, 25-20, 25-27, 21-25, 20-18 victory over Saddleback on the road Wednesday night.
Saddleback went into the match ranked 16th in the state and defeated No. 25 Irvine Valley in five sets earlier this season.
IVC stayed alive for one of the top spots in the Orange Empire Conference with the victory.
The Lasers improved their record to 11-5 overall and 9-4 in conference.
IVC is just a half match behind Golden West for second place in conference.
Freshman outside hitter Taira Ka'awaloa, who was Irvine Valley's athlete of the week this past week, continued her solid play with 27 kills and 20 digs.
Sophomore outside hitter Lucee Fitzgerald had 15 kills and 26 digs, sophomore opposite Juju Cannon ended with eight kills, sophomore libero Taylor Askins had 24 digs and nine assists, sophomore setter Alissa Blevins contributed 27 assists and 13 digs and freshman setter Savanah Schroeder chipped in 22 assists and 15 digs in the IVC win.
Freshman middle blocker Kylie Miller leads the conference in blocks at 1.18 per set and sophomore middle blocker Hailey Riden is second at 1.06 per set.
Ka'awaloa ranks fifth in the conference in kills at 3.40 per set and fourth in hitting percentage at .303. Blevins is fourth in conference at 7.92 assists per set.
Irvine Valley plays again on Friday against Golden West at 6 p.m. It is the team's annual Dig Pink match with proceeds going toward helping increase breast cancer awareness.
Golden West, ranked No. 23 in the state, is in second place in the conference standings.