Women's Beach Volleyball

Women's beach volleyball State Championships start Thursday

Women's beach volleyball State Championships start Thursday

Irvine Valley's women's beach volleyball team makes a return trip to the California Community College Athletic Association State Championships and will go after the second title in program history on Thursday at the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center.

The Lasers won the first official CCAA state title in beach in 2016. IVC captured two club state titles in the two years before that.

Irvine Valley reached the state championships last season, but fell in pool play action, dropping a tough match to MiraCosta, 3-2.

IVC, seeded third out of the South region, will begin pool play in this year's state event by taking on the top-seeded team from the North region, Sierra, at 10 am.

Irvine Valley will then play No. 2 from the South, Long Beach City, at 12 p.m.

The other pool consists of Grossmont and El Camino from the South and Gavilan from the North.

The winners of the two pools will meet in the championship match at 4:30 p.m.

Heading into Thursday's event, Irvine Valley has a record of 16-7 overall. It won the Orange Empire Conference East Division with a record of 10-0.

Irvine Valley has won nine straight matches with its last defeats coming to NCAA Division 1 Stanford and Grand Canyon on Mar. 24.

The Lasers are 14-0 against community college opponents this year with 13 of those wins being 5-0 sweeps.

Irvine Valley has won 69 individual matches and dropped just one in those 14 matches against fellow community college programs.

Four Irvine Valley pairs also moved on to the state pairs championship, which gets underway on Friday in Chula Vista.

Those duos advancing included sophomore Renata Bath and Lea Kruse, sophomores Alyssa Vortouni and Emilie Austin, freshmen Anna Unke and Gabriela Griego and freshmen Alaina Gendale and Kendall Nolan.

Bath and Kruse advanced as the third team from the South regional and Vortouni and Austin were fourth.

Irvine Valley's No. 5 pair of freshman Alaina Thomas and sophomore Alison Kent has also had a strong year.

Long Beach City has a record of 14-6 overall.

Long Beach City won the South Coast Conference title with a 6-0 record. It beat El Camino, 3-2, both times it played to earn the title.

The Vikings are led by their No. 1 pair of Sierra Davis and Brooklin Mize.

Other pairs include Kylee Irvwin-Paz and Jessica Blakeman, Doris Woods and Isabella Alvarez, Kaitlyn Peterson and Elsa Woods and Calissa Candalot and Emma Harris.

Doris Woods and Isabella Alvarez and Elsa Woods and Kaitlyn Peterson each qualified for the state pairs championship.

Doris Woods and Alvarez are seeded No. 8 going into the event, while Elsa Woods and Peterson are ranked No. 10.

Sierra has a record of 14-5 overall and went 7-1 to win the Big Eight Conference title. Sierra defeated Feather River, 3-2, in the North regional to advance to state.

Haley Biles and Meghan Merlino were the No. 2 pair from the North regional with Kapri Pelle and Sarah Shively finishing fourth.

You can view the state pairs brackets here

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