Irvine Valley's men's volleyball team slipped two spots to No. 7 in the second week of the 2020 California Community College Men's Volleyball Coaches Association State Poll.
The Lasers dropped three straight matches, but seemed to get back on track last Friday with an easy sweep at Santa Monica.
Irvine Valley snapped a three-game skid and improved to 2-3 overall.
The Lasers, ranked No. 5 in the first California Community College Men's Volleyball Coaches Association state poll, had dropped two matches to No. 3 El Camino and another to top-ranked Orange Coast, in its last three contests.
On Friday at Santa Monica, Irvine Valley was playing on all cylinders.
IVC got contributions from all around in the match.
Twelve different players had at least one kill in the contest.
Freshman outside hitter Josh Beymer finished with a team-best 10 kills and hit .643 on the night.
Freshman outside hitter Colin Chillingworth and freshman opposite Keanna McReynolds each added six kills, freshman libero Mason Colline and sophomore libero Red Ramos both had seven digs and freshman setter Peter Kim ran the offense with 30 assists.
Irvine Valley hit an impressive .435 as a team on the night.
Irvine Valley takes on the hot team in the state, Santa Barbara City, Wednesday night at 6 p.m. at home. Santa Barbara City knocked off No. 1 Orange Coast in four sets in Santa Barbara last week.
Even with the loss, Orange Coast held on to No. 1.
The voting was a lot closer this week, though, for the top position with Long Beach City, Santiago Canyon and Santa Barbara City each receiving a No. 1 vote.
Long Beach City came in at No. 2 for the second week in a row. The Vikings improved to 3-1 overall with a 25-10, 22-25, 25-16, 25-14 win at Golden West in its only match of the week last Wednesday.
Erik Hernandez had 13 kills, Uriel Batitsta finished with nine kills and nine digs and Kyler Tufuga had 20 digs for Long Beach City.
Santiago Canyon, one of only two undefeated teams left in the state, jumped four spots to in the poll and is now No. 3. The Hawks swept Santa Barbara City last Wednesday behind 16 kills from Matthew Roussin and 29 assists by Joshua Lloyd. Santiago Canyon takes on the other undefeated team in the state, No. 8Moorpark, Wednesday at home.
El Camino and Santa Barbara City round out the top five teams in this week's poll.
No. 4 El Camino downed Irvine Valley in four sets in its lone match last week on Wednesday at home. Gabriel Vargas-Featherstone had 14 kills, Connor Oliver added 11 kills, Luke Grafton contributed 18 digs and Tommy Fraker finished with 38 assists.
And as mentioned before, new No. 5 Santa Barbara City stunned Orange Coast, 25-23, 25-21, 24-26, 25-22 last Friday at home. Keoni Thiim and Trent Lingruen led the way with 19 and 18 kills, respectively. And Kyle Merchen ran the offense with 35 assists. The Vaqueros hit an impressive .383 as a team in the match.
The rest of the top 10 poll can be viewed below.
CCCMVCA State Top 10
1. Orange Coast (2-1)
2. Long Beach City (3-1)
3. Santiago Canyon (2-0)
4. El Camino (3-1)
5. Santa Barbara City (1-2)
6. Miramar (1-1)
7. Irvine Valley (2-3)
8. Moorpark (3-0)
9. Golden West (2-2)
10. Fullerton (2-1)
Others receiving votes: Grossmont
