Irvine Valley's women's volleyball team is finding its groove in Orange Empire Conference play.
The Lasers, ranked No. 16 in the state, won for the third straight time and played one of their best matches of the season in sweeping No. 22 Fullerton, 25-14, 25-22, 25-11 on Friday night at home.
Irvine Valley (10-3, 6-2) hit a season-high .386 as a team on the night. Freshman opposite Jayli Nealy was the star. She hit a season-best .750, connecting on 13 kills with just one error on 16 attempts.
Freshman outside hitter Jaclyn Sanchez also finished with double-digit kills, recording 10 kills to go along with a team-high 14 digs.
Freshman outside hitter Emily Guenter contributed seven kills and 10 digs and freshman middle blocker Kendall Fraser had six kills and hit .667.
IVC ended with 45 digs on the night. Along with Sanchez and Guenter, freshman defensive specialist Lexie Bruce added nine digs and sophomore libero Alexandra Pestolis had seven digs.
Freshman setter Maddie Harkey had another solid night with 36 assists.
Irvine Valley used a 5-0 run in the first set to take a 17-11 lead.
Fullerton (10-9, 4-4) pulled within 20-16, but the Lasers rolled off five of the next seven points to take the set. Nealy and Guenter had kills to get IVC to set point and a Fullerton hitting error ended it.
The Hornets were up, 7-3, and then, 9-5, in the second set before Irvine Valley rallied with six of the next seven points. Two aces by Sanchez helped the Lasers take a 11-10 lead.
Neither team separated by more than one point for the next 19 points and there were 10 ties.
Tied at 20, the Lasers finally broke through.
Nealy ripped a kill and Fraser added a kill to put IVC ahead, 22-20.
Fullerton sided out on a kill by Samantha Martinez to make it 22-21, but the Lasers won the final three points to wrap up the set and a 2-0 lead.
Sanchez put down back-to-back kills to end the set.
After a slow start, the third set was all Lasers.
IVC trailed 3-1, but a kill by Nealy tied it at 9-9.
It was the start of a 8-0 run for Irvine Valley.
During the run, Guenter had a kill, Nealy added two and Guenter and Fraser and Nealy and Fraser combined for blocks.
The block by Nealy and Fraser gave IVC a 16-9 lead.
Soon enough, the Lasers were ahead, 21-10, on an ace by Bruce.
Irvine Valley reached match point at 24-13 on a kill by Fraser and two points later Fullerton served out to end the match.
IVC has two more home matches next week, starting with hosting Santiago Canyon on Wednesday at 6 p.m. That contest will signal the start of the second round of conference action.
