The Irvine Valley women's volleyball team, ranked No. 2 in the California Community College Athletic Association So. Cal. Regional Playoffs goes after a place in the State Championships Saturday night with a match against No. 10 Canyons at home at 6 p.m.
The two teams played in the first match of the season at IVC.
Irvine Valley won, 25-12, 25-20, 25-20. But Canyons made the state championship tournament last year and has won 14 of its last 15 matches.
COC captured the Western State Conference South Division with a record of 12-0.
The Cougars have a record of 19-8 overall.
Canyons went to No. 7 Santa Ana and won, 25-20, 25-20, 25-21 on Tuesday to move on to the regional final.
COC only made one serving error and hit an efficient .333 (45 kills, 12 attack errors) behind the powerful swing of All-American Third Team player Aly Grodell on 13 kills in just 17 attempts (.765) and Kaelyn White's 13 kills (.370), three aces and and three blocks.
Sabrina Sveien notched 14 digs and Abby Sherman had 11 digs.
On the year, Canyons is led by White, who is averaging 3.07 kills per set, Grodell, who averages 2.80 kills, Jordan Nunez, who averages 6.74 assists and Sherman, who averages 2.75 digs.
Irvine Valley took the Orange Empire Conference title and is the No. 2 seed in the So. Cal. Regional Playoffs.
Irvine Valley, ranked No. 9 in the state in the final regular-season poll, defeated No. 15 Bakersfield, 25-17, 25-17, 20-25, 25-20, Tuesday night at home to make the regional final.
The Lasers (20-4) won their 11th match in a row.
All-SoCal Region freshman outside hitter Tessa Marocco hit an efficient .410 behind 18 kills and added nine digs to lead IVC.
All-American Second Team opposite hitter Jayli Nealy ended with 13 kills and three blocks, sophomore setter Maddie Harkey ran the offense with 41 assists and three aces plus five kills.
Freshman middle blocker Avery Bennett scored five kill and had four blocks and sophomore middle blocker Kendall Fraser ended the night with six blocks.
On the year, Marocco is 11th in the state, averaging 4.16 kills and adding 2.67 digs per set.
Nealy averages 3.98 kills, which is 15th in the state and is hitting .303 on the year. Sophomore libero Gabi Brown averages 3.59 digs and Harkey is averaging 8.08 assists for the Lasers.
The winner moves on to the state tourney next week at Fresno City College.
