Irvine Valley's women's beach volleyball team had its top two pairs move on from Wednesday's opening rounds to the final day of the Orange Empire Conference championships tournament on Friday at IVC.
IVC's top two pairs of sophomores Audrey Fowler and Avery Bennett and sophomores Alya Mersin and Jayva Andersen each qualified through the first day of the competition on Wednesday and made the final day of the event.
By doing that, each Laser pair was named first team all-OEC and qualified for the So. Cal. Regional pairs tournament next Friday and Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College.
Fowler and Bennett and Mersin and Andersen each received byes in their first matches on Wednesday and then both pairs won in straight sets in the round of 32 to earn qualifying spots for the regionals.
Fowler and Bennett received another bye in the round of 16 on Friday and ended up going all the way to the finals later in the day on Friday.
They rallied to defeat the Santiago Canyon pair Chelsea Riedel and Ava Cline,14-21, 21-12, 15-11, to reach the title match.
But IVC's team fell to Orange Coast's top pair of Jordan Packer and Kayla Ihrig, 21-17, 21-9, in the final.
It was Fowler and Bennett's first defeat in conference all seaason.
Fowler and Bennett still had a fine showing and Fowler now has a first place finish (2024) and second place showing (2025) in the event,.
Mersin and Andersen ended up finishing eighth in the event for the Lasers.
