Irvine Valley's women's volleyball team remained in first place in the Orange Empire Conference after beating Golden West for the second time this season.
The Lasers defeated the Rustlers in four sets at home earlier in the month, but played even better last Friday in sweeping Golden West.
Irvine Valley came through with a 25-12, 25-18, 26-24 sweep of the Rustlers. It was IVC's fifth-straight victory.
"We played pretty well," Irvine Valley coach Tom Pestolesi said. "We were super efficient and passed really well."
Irvine Valley improved its record to 11-4 overall and 8-1 in conference.
The Lasers are one match ahead of Cypress and two matches in front of Fullerton in the standings.
IVC, ranked No. 13 in the state and seventh in Southern California, hit a season-high .479 in the match.
Sophomore outside hitter Hannah Matt had 11 kills, hit .563, had four digs and three blocks.
Sophomore outside hitter Kayla Scheevel finished with 10 kills and hit .444. Freshman right side Olivia Aguilar had 10 kills and hit .444.
Freshman middle blockers Kayla Shields and Hailey Riden each had five kills. Riden hit .667 with Shields hitting .400.
Sophomore libero Emily Reinking had 12 digs, freshman defensive specialist Cosette Hawyrliak had four aces and sophomore setter Jenna Olbright contributed 34 assists, seven digs and two aces.
"Jenna did a really good job of distributing the ball," Pestolesi said. "You can see by the stats, that the balance was great."
After winning the first set easily, Irvine Valley was down, 7-3, in the second set.
The Lasers then scored 22 of the next 33 points in the set for the win.
The third set was tight throughout. Tied, 21-21, Golden West scored two straight points to go up, 23-21.
IVC got within 23-22 and then Hawyrliak came up with an ace to tie it at 23-23.
Another tough serve by Hawyrliak led to a point and a 24-23 lead for the Lasers.
She barely missed a match-winning ace on the next point when her jump serve sailed just long.
Tied at 24-24, Irvine Valley won the final two points for the win.
Scheevel ended the match with a kill.
"It was a good performance," Pestolesi said. "You obviously want to win, but it is nice to do it in three (sets)."
Irvine Valley has two more tough matches next week. The Lasers play host to a streaking Riverside squad on Wednesday and then travel to Fullerton on Friday. Riverside has won four matches in a row and is in a tie for fourth place in the conference standings. Fullerton handed IVC its lone loss in conference so far.
