The Irvine Valley men's volleyball team begins Orange Empire Conference Championship Tournament action on Thursday at home against Fullerton at 6 p.m. in one of two semifinal matches.
Irvine Valley is the No. 2 seed and is facing third-seeded Fullerton.
The other semifinal match-up will take place at Orange Coast with the top-seeded Pirates, hosting No. 4 Golden West. The Rustlers swept No. 5 Santiago Canyon Wednesday night to move into the semis.
Irvine Valley's match on Thursday will be live-streamed on the Irvine Valley College Athletics Facebook page at facebook.com/IrvineValleyCollegeAthletics
The Lasers and Fullerton have played once this season with IVC earning a 25-20, 25-17, 25-18 victory on May 3.
The Lasers received a big performance from freshman outside hitter Colin Chillingworth. He had 13 kills, hit .333, recorded five digs and three blocks and scored 17.5 points.
Freshman outside hitter JT Demure added 10 kills and 12 digs and hit .368, freshman libero Adam Schulte had eight digs and four aces, freshman middle blocker Trevor Weinert ended with five blocks and freshman setter Andrew Perez ran the offense with 27 assists.
Irvine Valley closed out the match in the third set with a 12-7 run.
On the year, Irvine Valley is averaging 12.69 kills per set and hitting .314 as a team for a match, while holding OEC opponents to .183. Irvine Valley ranks second in hitting percentage in the conference next to Orange Coast's .392.
The Lasers are led by Chillingworth, who is second in the conference in kills per set at 4.08. IVC's JT Demure ranks fifth at 3.14.
Weinert is second in the conference at 1.04 blocks per set, Demure ranks fourth in the conference at 2.71 digs per set and Perez is tops in the conference with a 11.63 assists per set average.
Fullerton is hitting .168 as a team and is led by Leonardo Mazuco who is averaging 3.62 kills per set. Evan Shank runs the Hornet offense, averaging 7.64 assists per set.
The full Orange Empire Conference stat leader list can be viewed here
