SBCC gave No. 2 Irvine Valley all it could handle in Wednesday night’s opening set before the Lasers found their groove in a 3-0 women’s volleyball sweep over No. 9 SBCC at the Sports Pavilion.
The Lasers (6-0), who knocked the Vaqueros out of last year’s State playoffs in the Southern Cal Regional Finals, posted a 28-26, 25-13, 25-11 victory. Annie Mitchem, a 6-2 middle blocker, led IVC with 18 kills, 14 digs and a .517 hitting percentage.
Mitchem, who’s commited to Hawaii next year, was the National 2-Year Player of the Year last season.
The first set was a back-and-forth affair with nine lead changes and 15 ties. The Vaqueros (4-2) took a 16-12 advantage on a block by Taylor Badois. The Lasers responded with a 5-0 run to regain the upper hand.
Irvine Valley had three set points before Marisa Doran (13 kills) ended it with a spike off a back row player. An ace serve by Katelynn Womack gave the Vaqueros set point at 25-24 but Mitchem pounded a kill to even the score.
Womack had five kills and three solo blocks for the Vaqueros. Kaitlyn Clemann added five kills and Eryn Young had a season-high 20 digs.
“We really battled in the first set, then they put Annie in the front row and it was a different game,” said coach Ed Gover. “We can’t match up with a girl that good. It put us behind to start the second and third sets.”
IVC jumped ahead 12-5 in the second set and 6-0 in the third.
“Once they got in the rotation they wanted, it was hard to stop [Annie],” Gover added. “Then they ran out five points on each rotation when she was in the front row.
“We need to keep working on our serve receive and finding ways to side out. We need to get our hitters better and better and make them more versatile.”
The Vaqueros will face two Orange Empire teams on Saturday in the Fullerton Quad. They’ll take on No. 7 Golden West at 10 a.m. and the host Hornets (ranked 16th) at 2 p.m.
