The Irvine Valley women's volleyball team is back in the race for the Orange Empire Conference title.
The Lasers, who have won the title the past two seasons, handed Cypress its first loss in conference play Wednesday night, sweeping at Cypress, 25-21, 25-16, 25-20.
Irvine Valley went into the contest ranked No. 17 in the state with Cypress at No. 8 in the state.
The Lasers improved their record to 8-4 overall and 5-1 in the OEC.
And there is now a three-way tie for first in the conference standings between IVC, Cypress and Fullerton.
A late 4-0 run by Irvine Valley was enough for the Lasers to put Cypress away in the first set.
IVC went on a 5-0 run to take a 17-11 lead in the second set and never looked back.
The Lasers jumped out to an early 7-1 lead in the third set and cruised from there.
Freshman right side Olivia Aguilar paced the team with 14 kills. Sophomore outside hitter Kayla Scheevel had 13 kills, 10 digs and hit a solid .706 on the night.
Freshman middle blocker Hailey Riden had seven kills and four blocks, sophomore outside hitter Hannah Matt finished with six kills, sophomore libero Emily Reinking contributed 11 digs and sophomore setter Jenna Olbright ran the offense with 39 assists.
IVC hit .311 on the night compared to just .165 for Cypress. The Lasers had 45 kills to just 29 for the Chargers.
The Lasers also passed at a 2.34 clip.
Irvine Valley will close out the first round of conference play on Friday with a home match against Orange Coast at 6 p.m.
