Irvine Valley's men's volleyball team played one of its most complete matches of the season in sweeping Palomar, 25-20, 25-19, 25-22, in a Pacific Coast Conference match at home on Friday night.
It was Irvine Valley's second straight sweep and fourth of the season.
The Lasers were paced by freshman outside hitter Cole Murray with 11 kills. He also hit .600 on the night and added two aces.
Freshman opposite Davis Cannon had 10 kills and hit .500, freshman outside hitter AJ Hammer finished with seven kills and six digs and freshman middle blocker Marcus Dillon had four kills and four blocks. Freshman setter Steven Duhoux ran the offense with 31 assists.
The first time the two teams met this season, IVC had to scratch out a five-set win.
"We played much better," IVC coach Ki Yi said. "Our serving was way better and that is the key (IVC made just seven serving errors over three sets). We have put a lot of emphasis on serving in the last couple of practices. We just need to keep it up now."
IVC pulled out the first set, which was close throughout. The Lasers used a 3-0 run late to take a 22-16 lead.
Murray later ended the set with a kill.
Palomar was up, 8-5, in the second set. But the Lasers later scored two straight to go ahead, 13-12.
IVC closed the set strong, winning six of the final eight points. A kill by Cannon gave Irvine Valley set point at 24-17.
And then two points later a kill by Murray put IVC ahead in sets, 2-0.
Irvine Valley never trailed in the third set and it was never tied.
The Lasers took their largest lead of the set at 16-10. They were up, 21-16, after a kill by Cannon and then 23-17 after a block by Dillon and freshman outside hitter Josh Schmidt.
Palomar scored three in a row to get back to 23-20.
The match ended four points later when Palomar hit into the net.
Irvine Valley plays another big match next Wednesday at Grossmont at 6 p.m. IVC has been the only team to defeat Grossmont so far in conference, beating the Griffins in four sets at home on Feb. 28.
Grossmont went into Friday night's action tied with Orange Coast for first place in conference.
