With Orange Coast already having clinched at least a share of the Orange Empire Conference title, the Irvine Valley men's volleyball team needed a victory Friday on the road to keep pace.
The Lasers did just that, beating Santiago Canyon, 25-23, 25-19, 19-25, 25-23 to take their place alongside OCC at the top of the OEC standings and earn a co-championship.
The win also secured the first conference title for first-year head coach Rory Jones.
The Lasers ended the regular season with a record of 16-2 overall and 7-1 in conference with the win and assured a top three seed in the upcoming California Community College Athletic Association state playoffs.
Freshman setter Kaina Alvarez had a big night for IVC. He ended with 39 assists and 12 digs and fed sophomore opposite Demetre Gossett for 18 kills and freshman outside hitter Damon Kooiman for 13 kills.
Sophomore all-state libero Adam Schulte added 11 digs, Gossett contributed nine digs and freshman outside hitter Zach McEntire had seven digs to go along with eight kills.
IVC finished with 50 digs on the night as a team.
Irvine Valley now awaits the state playoff pairings, which will be announced on Saturday.
