The Irvine Valley men's volleyball team is ready for the stretch run of its 2021 season.
The Lasers swept their sixth straight opponent, beating Golden West, 25-18, 25-19, 25-16, Friday night on the road in an Orange Empire Conference match.
IVC improved its record to 6-0 overall and 5-0 in conference.
The Lasers take on the other undefeated squad in the OEC, Orange Coast, next week.
Irvine Valley hosts OCC on Wednesday at 6 p.m. and then plays at Orange Coast on Friday at 6 p.m.
Those matches will conclude the regular season and a conference tournament will follow, starting on Tuesday, May 18.
For the second time this week against Golden West, the Lasers were very efficient on offense as a team.
IVC hit .422 in its sweep of the Rustlers at home on Wednesday and then followed that up with a .432 performance on Friday night.
Freshman outside hitter Colin Chillingworth had his second big match of the week. He ended with 15 kills and hit .619.
Freshman outside hitter Karl Stenlund, starting his first match of the season, had 10 kills, five digs and hit .444.
Sophomore opposite Garret Schnitker added eight kills and five solo blocks, freshman setter Andrew Perez finished with 33 assists and five digs and freshman libero Adam Schulte contributed seven digs.
The first set was tied at 11 when IVC went on a big run. The Lasers out-scored the Rustlers, 14-7, the rest of the way.
In the second set, Irvine Valley was in complete control. A tip winner by Stenlund put IVC ahead, 20-13.
Stenlund later closed the set out with a kill.
Irvine Valley dominated in the third set. After Golden West hit out, Schnitker had a block to make it 19-11. And IVC took a 20-11 lead on a kill by sophomore outside hitter Max Wise.
A kill by freshman outside hitter Josh Beymer put the Lasers in front 23-12 and a kill by Stenlund gave IVC match point at 24-14. Three points later, Irvine Valley won the match on a Golden West hitting error.
