Orange Coast College

Women's Volleyball: Top-ranked Irvine Valley sweeps past Pirates

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

COSTA MESA -- A pair of sophomore sluggers sent rockets back and forth all night, but when the dust settled, it was the top-ranked Irvine Valley Lasers who outlasted the Orange Coast College Pirates, 30-28, 30-24, 30-27 in the Orange Empire Conference finale for both teams.

With the win, the Lasers (21-0, 14-0 in conference) wrap up a perfect Orange Empire Conference slate and will most likely be given the No. 1 seeding as the Southern California Regional Playoffs get underway next week. Playoff seedings will be announced this weekend.

For the Pirates (15-6, 9-5) it was a solid effort against the state's best team, but costly mistakes allowed the Lasers to slip out of the Peterson Gym with the win.

In the opening game, OCC was clicking on all cylinders as some big hits and some errant IVC returns gave the Pirates a 23-15 advantage, forcing the Lasers into a timeout.

Whatever was said in that timeout, worked, because IVC proceeded to go on a 15-5 run to close the game out. Sophomore outside hitter Chelsea Pavlik, who finished with 17 kills, nine digs and five blocks, came through down the stretch with two kills and a block, while Jessica Flood added a pair of key aces to spark a 5-0 run, turning a 26-23 deficit into a 28-26 advantage.

OCC's slugger Jacqi Reed (18 kills, 12 digs) tried to keep the Pirates in the game, but IVC would not falter as Pavlik matched Reed down the stretch to maintain the Lasers' lead.

That momentum from the Game 1 comeback spilled into the early part of Game 2 as IVC jumped out to a 10-2 advantage, but the Pirates would not go away.

An 8-3 run by OCC, followed later with a 5-1 outburst helped the Pirates get to within a point at 17-16, forcing another Laser timeout.

Again the timeout paid off as the Lasers regrouped and went on an 11-4 run to grab hold of Game 2 and take a two-game lead in the match.

Trailing by as many as six in the third game, OCC again showed that it can play with the Lasers and forged another comeback as Reed, Rebecca Lowe (10 kills), Emily Lyon (34 assists) and Deirdre Fiapai (11 digs) helped the Pirates get to within a point at 22-21.

But for every OCC run, Pavlik and the Lasers would respond as five straight OCC points were answered back with five points from the Lasers, keeping the guests in front by a point.

A rare misplay by the Lasers evened the score at 26, but the Lasers responded with three straight points -- a Pavlik block, a Flood service winner and a Pavlik block -- to lead 29-26. An OCC service error ended the match, giving the Lasers the win, their third straight over the Pirates dating back to last year.

Prior to the game, OCC honored its six sophomores -- Reed, Lowe, Jenna Harp, Jessica Roy, Stephanie Thomas and Tracy Bjelland -- prior to Wednesday's match. With her 18 kills, Reed surpassed Melissa Zapiain for No. 2 on Coast's all-time kills record with 673. Reed now only trails former teammate Kiwi Winkler (895) on the all-time list.