The Irvine Valley men's volleyball team was ranked No. 5 in the first California Community College Men's Volleyball Coaches Association Poll of 2020.
The Lasers dropped two of their first three contests, but two of those defeats came at the hands of two of the top-ranked teams in the state.
IVC, which finished second in the state last season, started the year with a 25-23, 25-23, 25-13 win at Antelope Valley on Jan. 30.
Irvine Valley then fell in four sets to Long Beach City and was swept by El Camino in the Orange Coast Quad event on Feb. 1.
Long Beach came in at No. 2 in the first state poll with El Camino at No. 3.
Sophomore outside hitter Max Wise had eight kills, sophomore outside hitter Demetre Gossett added seven kills and four digs and freshman outside hitter Colin Chillingworth finished with six kills and two blocks for the Lasers against El Camino on Saturday.
Freshman setter Peter Kim had 12 assists and sophomore setter Jimi Wilson contributed eight assists for IVC.
The Lasers play at El Camino on Wednesday and at Santa Monica on Friday.
After two impressive wins in its own quad event last Saturday, Orange Coast was the overwhelming choice for the No. 1 spot in the state poll.
The Pirates received the top vote in the ranking from every coach after defeating defending state champion Long Beach City in a wild, five-set thriller in the final match of the day. Orange Coast came out on top, 25-23, 18-25, 25-20, 22-25, 15-9 behind 16 kills and three aces from Will Anderson, eight kills apiece from Hunter Dickey and James Townsend and 37 assists and 10 digs from Kohl Kutsch.
OCC also downed El Camino earlier in the quad. Anderson paced the Pirates with 17 kills and six aces.
Long Beach came in at a close No. 2 in the poll. The Vikings had their chances against Orange Coast and took down Irvine Valley, 3-1, in a re-match of last year's state championship contest as part of the quad. Uriel Batista finished with 33 kills in the two matches for LBCC. Arsene Ponsin added 25 kills and standout setter Joseph Rocha ended with 90 assist on the day.
El Camino earned the No. 3 position after winning two of its first three contests. The Warriors swept Golden West earlier last week, fell to Orange Coast and then swept Irvine Valley in the OCC Quad.
In its 29-27, 25-23, 25-19 win over IVC last Saturday, the Warriors ended with 42 digs and 21 block assists. Luke Grafton had an impressive 20 digs in the victory.
Rounding out the top five teams were Miramar, which bounced back from a three-set loss to Long Beach City with a nice four-set win over Santa Barbara City last Friday, and Irvine Valley, which beat Antelope Valley in four sets last week and then dropped its two matches at the OCC Quad on Saturday.
The full top 10 poll can be viewed below.
CCCMVCA STATE POLL (Feb. 5)
RK School
1. Orange Coast (2-0)
2. Long Beach City (2-1)
3. El Camino (2-1)
4. SD Miramar (1-1)
5. Irvine Valley (1-2)
6. Santiago Canyon (1-0)
7. Santa Barbara City (0-1)
8. Golden West (0-1)
9. Fullerton (1-0)
10. Moorpark (1-0)
Others: San Diego Mesa
