The Irvine Valley men's volleyball team played one of its most complete matches of the season to start the California Community College Athletic Association Playoffs.
The Lasers, seeded third, swept No. 6 Santa Monica for the second time this season.
And it was a dominant performance by Irvine Valley.
The Lasers won, 25-16, 25-8, 25-18, to improve their record to 17-4 overall on the year.
The IVC squad will face Orange Empire Conference rival and the No. 2 seed in the state tournament Orange Coast next Thursday at El Camino at 5 p.m.
Orange Coast won the OEC title and is on a 13-match win streak.
But Saturday night was all about IVC's control at the net. The Lasers hit a season-best .539 as a team for the match and had just four hitting errors in the contest.
IVC hit .722 as a team in the second set win.
Leading the way was freshman outside hitter Karl Stenlund, who finished with 14 kills and hit .591.
Freshman outside hitter Trevor Weinert hit .833 with 10 kills in 12 attempts and freshman opposite Jaden Churchill added another 10 kills and hit .500.
IVC freshman setter Andrew Perez ran the IVC offense and collected 41 assists on the night.
Freshman libero Adam Schulte and freshman middle blocker Josh Beymer were the backbone of the defensive effort. Schulte had nine digs and Beymer, who leads the state in blocks, had one solo block and four assists to go along with five kills in seven attempts for IVC.
Irvine Valley moves on to the CCCAA State semifinals next Thursday at 5 p.m. against No. 2-ranked Orange Coast.
OCC swept No. 7 Moorpark Saturday night.
More details soon about how to secure access to tickets for the matches at El Camino.
