Irvine Valley's men's volleyball team begins play in the new Orange Empire Conference Friday night at home.
The Lasers have previously been in the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference, but with the addition of new programs Fullerton and Santiago Canyon, there is now enough squads for an Orange Empire Conference for men's volleyball.
IVC has a record of 9-1 overall and is ranked No. 1 in the state coaches poll.
The Lasers have been ranked first for six straight weeks.
Irvine Valley defeated No. 7 El Camino, 25-19, 25-21, 18-25, 25-16 on Wednesday night at home.
IVC received 19 kills from sophomore middle blocker Matt August, including several key ones in the fourth set when he was moved to the opposite position.
August also had six blocks, six digs and one ace in the contest.
Freshman outside hitter Brennan To had nine kills and five digs, sophomore outside hitter Ruben Lopez and freshman outside hitter Spencer Alden each contributed six kills and sophomore outside hitter Cody Hermanson chipped in five kills.
Sophomore libero Josh Evers finished with six digs and freshman setter Austin McBain had 40 assists.
On the year, Lopez is averaging 3.03 kills per set with August averaging 2.89, To averaging 2.31 and freshman outside hitter Patrick Furlong averaging 1.76 per set.
August leads the state in hitting percentage at .444. August also ranks fourth in the state in blocks per set at 1.31, while McBain is third in the state in assists at 10.75 per set.
Santiago Canyon has a record of 2-7 overall.
The Hawks defeated LA trade Tech in three sets on Feb. 8 and Antelope Valley in four sets on Mar. 8 this season.
This is the first year of the program at Santiago Canyon.
The Hawks started conference play on Wednesday. They fell to Fullerton, 25-14, 25-9, 25-14.
Andrew Desrochers averages 1.84 kills, Antonio Abarca averages 1.48 kills and Kory Wills averages 1.47 kills per set.
Willis is also averaging 1.21 blocks per set, Gustavo Marquez averages 0.63 blocks and Christoper Solares is averaging 4.44 assists per set for Santiago Canyon.
