Irvine Valley's women's volleyball team played its best match of the season on Wednesday night.
The Lasers rallied back to beat Golden West, 22-25. 25-20, 23-25, 25-18, 15-12, in a key Orange Empire Conference match at Golden West.
IVC handed Golden West, ranked No. 14 in the state and ninth in Southern California, its first loss in conference.
"The team was great tonight," IVC coach Nate Ngo said. "They really battled."
The win snapped a three-match losing streak for the Lasers and also got them back in the hunt in the conference race.
Irvine Valley improved its record to 5-4 overall and 3-3 in conference. Golden West fell to 8-2 overall and 4-1 in conference.
The Lasers currently sit in fifth place in the conference standings, but just a half match behind Saddleback for fourth and two matches behind Golden West for third.
Irvine Valley plays again on Friday, hosting Fullerton at 6 p.m.
It was a true team effort for the Lasers on Wednesday night. IVC had five players with at least 10 kills.
Sophomore outside hitter Lucee Fitzgerald and freshman outside hitter Taira Ka'awaloa each had 12 kills to lead the way. Ka'awaloa hit .400 on the night and also added nine digs.
Fitzgerald had a team-high 22 digs to go along with her 12 kills.
Freshman middle blocker Kylie Miller had 10 kills and hit an outstanding .562 in her best match for the Lasers this year. She also had a team-high five blocks.
Sophomore opposite Juju Cannon finished with 10 kills, freshman outside hitter Hannah Holder had 10 kills and sophomore middle blocker Hailey Riden added seven kills and hit .353.
Sophomore libero Taylor Askins ended with 13 kills, four assists and two aces.
And the setting combo of sophomore Alissa Blevins and freshman Savanah Schroeder also stood out.
Blevins had 31 assists and 12 digs and Schroeder finished with 24 assists and nine digs in IVC's victory.
