The Irvine Valley men's volleyball team has a key stretch of matches to finish out the regular season.
IVC, which is in a tie for first place in the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference, took care of business in the first of those contests.
The Lasers earned a tough 26-24, 25-15, 17-25, 25-15 over Palomar on the road on Wednesday night.
It was Irvine Valley's sixth win in a row. The Lasers improved their record to 11-3 overall and 9-1 in conference.
Sophomore outside hitter Cole Murray led the team with 16 kills. He also had six aces and six digs.
Sophomore outside hitter Josh Schmidt followed with 13 kills and freshman middle blocker Robert Ryley had nine kills.
Schmidt finished with a team-high hitting percentage of .458, getting his 13 kills with only two errors on 24 attempts.
Sophomore libero Billy Crow had a team best in digs with 16. Freshman defensive specialist Cody Hermanson added six digs.
Freshman setter Jake Adams ran the offense with 48 assists.
Irvine Valley takes on Grossmont, which is also tied for first place, on Friday at home at 6 p.m.
The Lasers are then home against San Diego Mesa next Friday before finishing the regular season with matches against rivals Golden West and Orange Coast.
