The Irvine Valley men's volleyball team, ranked sixth in the state, dropped the first two sets to No. 1 Orange Coast, rallied to win the next two, but lost in the fifth set, 15-7, Wednesday night at home.
Orange Coast pulled out a 25-22, 25-21, 22-25, 18-25, 15-7, Orange Empire Conference victory to improve to 20-2 overall and 12-1 in the south divison of state.
Irvine Valley fell to 14-7 overall and 8-5 in the division. The Lasers end the regular season on Friday at home against Santiago Canyon at 6 p.m.
IVC looked to be down and out after the first two sets, but had a strong third set and won it on a kill by freshman outside hitter Tanner McClain.
Irvine Valley continued that momentum into the fourth set. The Lasers took a 23-14 lead and captured the set on a kill off the block by freshman outside hitter Spencer York.
The Lasers won the first point of the final set, but Orange Coast went on a 12-5 run to take control.
A block by Adam Haider and Kam Vikilian for a point gave the Pirates a 12-5 advantage.
Irvine Valley got within 14-7 on a kill by freshman middle blocker Joshua Damianopoulos, but a missed serve by the Lasers ended the match.
For Irvine Valley, York finished with 16 kills and hit .375 on the night. He also had three assists, six digs and eight total blocks.
Freshman opposite Travis Kaufman added nine kills, seven digs and four blocks and freshman outside hitter Lucas Vo had seven kills, two aces and six blocks.
Freshman setter Bryce Nohava ran the offense for IVC with 33 assists. He also contributed five kills, one ace and four digs and freshman libero Cage Gonzalez had four digs and four assists.
The Lasers are still in line to be a part of the state playoffs.
