Irvine Valley, No. 5 in the state, starts fast and sweeps Santa Monica, 25-17, 25-18, 25-21, on Wednesday afternoon at home.
With the win, the Lasers improve their record to 6-1 overall.
It was IVC's third sweep in a row.
Irvine Valley was ready to go from the opening serve in the first set.
The Lasers jumped out to a big lead at 22-13.
The Corsais scored two of the next three points to get within 23-16.
But a kill off the block by freshman outside hitter Spencer York pulled IVC to set point and after a serve out by Santa Monica, the set was done.
The second set was a bit closer, but Irvine Valley pulled away. York closed out the 25-18 win with a kill and then a tip winner to put the Lasers up two sets.
Irvine Valley had to battle big time in the third set for the sweep.
IVC led, 9-6, but Santa Monica went on 6-0 run to take a 12.
Irvine Valley rallied to tie the score 13-13 and went up, 14-13, on a tip by Kaufman.
The match was then tied at 14, before IVC took the lead for good in the set.
Another kill by Kaufman put the Lasers ahead, 15-14.
It was part of a 6-2 run. The advantage was 21-16 for IVC on back-to-back kills by freshman middle blocker Joshua Damianopoulos and York.
Irvine Valley moved to set point on a hitting error by the Corsairs and closed out the set, 25-21 on a kill by York off of a nice assist by freshman setter Bryce Nohava. Sophomore middle Riley Hurdiss had the nice fake before York smashed it up the middle.
For IVC, fresshman outside hitter Caleb Manea led the squad with 15 kills with one error on 22 attempts for a .636 hitting percentage. He also contributed eight digs.
Kaufman added nine kills and two blocks, York had eight kills and seven digs and Damianopoulos finshed with seven kills, two aces and two blocks.
Nohava ran the offense with 34 aces and freshman libero Cage Gonzalez led on defense with 11 digs.
Irvine Valley hit .280 for the contest as a team.
The Lasers play again versus a tough Long Beach City team on the road on Friday at 6 p.m.
