What was expected to be an absolute battle between the first and third-ranked men's volleyball teams in the state turned out to be a sweep.
No. 3 Orange Coast defeated No. 1 Irvine Valley, 25-14, 25-14, 26-24, Wednesday night in front of a big crowd at IVC.
The match was the opener in the Orange Empire Conference.
The win lifted Orange Coast's record to 9-2 overall, while Irvine Valley fell to 9-2 overall.
IVC jumped out to a 7-2 lead right off of the bat, but Orange Coast tied the score at 9 and took off from there.
A block and a kill by Trent Douphner put the Pirates ahead, 18-11.
Irvine Valley only got within six points the rest of the way in the first set.
A service error and a hitting error by the Lasers gave OCC the opening set.
Irvine Valley was in the second set midway through. A kill by freshman outside hitter Zach McEntire pulled IVC within 11-9.
But then OCC pulled away by scoring seven of the next nine points.
A block by Sebastian Lara and Niall Finnegan for a point put the Pirates up, 18-11.
Back-to-back kills by Lara made it a 22-13 game for Orange Coast and four points later Lara ended the set with an ace.
Irvine Valley came out strong in the third set, taking a 9-5 lead on back-to-back kills by sophomore opposite Demetre Gossett.
And the Lasers let, 13-8, after an attack error by OCC.
A kill by sophomore middle blocker Julio Gutierrez put IVC ahead, 17-14, but Orange Coast scored the next three points to tie things up.
And it was back and forth from there.
Orange Coast actually took a 21-18 lead on a kill by Lara. And Coast was up, 24-22, after a serve in the net by the Lasers.
But a kill by Gossett and then another kill by freshman outside hitter Damon Kooiman tied it up at 24 and gave IVC life.
However, Orange Coast scored the last two points, getting a kill by Finnegan and then a net by Irvine Valley.
The Lasers hit just .132 as a team on the night.
Kooiman finished with 11 kills and five digs and Gossett had nine kills for IVC. Freshman setter Kaina Alvarez finished with 20 assists and 11 digs and sophomore libero Adam Schulte ended with 16 digs.
Lara led Orange Coast with 18 kills.
Irvine Valley plays again next Wednesday at Golden West at 6 p.m. in a conference match.
