Irvine Valley Beach Volleyball Rounds Out Perfect Weekend
by Brent Shaver, IVC Sports Information
Irvine Valley's women's volleyball team made it a perfect weekend in the first California Community College Athletic Association Women's Sand Volleyball Championships.
The Lasers won a team state title on Friday and then had all three of their teams in the individual competition claim state titles on Saturday at Irvine Valley.
Marisa Doran and Kobi Pekich won the No. 1 team title, Annie Mitchem and Emily Reinking took the No. 2 team championship and Samantha Holdredge and Hailee Earnest captured the No. 3 team title.
Irvine Valley also won the indoor title last fall.
Mitchem, the two-time AVCA 2-Year National Volleyball Player of the Year, and Reinking and Holdredge and Earnest each won their final matches in straight sets.
The No. 1 teams final match went down to the wire. Doran and Pekich won a tough battle over Grossmont's team of Lauren Hays and Lexi Reddick, 21-18, 18-21, 15-12 for the title.
All three of the title matches featured Irvine Valley and Grossmont teams. Grossmont's No. 2 team of Lindsey Spinning and Megan Angerstein and No. 3 team of Tiffany Cobain and Brooke Callahan each finished as runner-up.
"It was awesome to watch what our gals did," Irvine Valley coach Tom Pestolesi said. "It just proves that we were the best team. This is the greatest group of women's volleyball players to ever come through Irvine Valley and it has been a pleasure to be their coach. They had the focus, drive and loved to play together. We are definitely going to miss them, not only because they were so talented, but they were awesome kids and so much fun to be around."
Pestolesi noted that sophomores Mitchem, Doran and Pekich were part of indoor teams at Irvine Valley that went 51-2 the past two seasons with a state championship and a state runner-up finish, a sand state championship as well as sand individual titles.