Irvine Valley beats Santa Ana, improves to 10-0

Irvine Valley's women's volleyball team hit double figures in wins with an easy 25-10, 25-8, 25-17 Orange Empire Conference victory over Santa Ana at home on Friday night.

Irvine Valley, ranked No. 2 in the state and No. 1 in Southern California, improved its record to 10-0 overall and 3-0 in conference.

The Lasers had little trouble in the first two sets and Santa Ana (3-7, 0-3) gave everything it could in the third set before IVC closed things out.

Irvine Valley was at its best on the night in the second set, rolling off 14 straight points to take a 17-2 lead.

Blocks by sophomore All-American middle blocker Annie Mitchem and freshman opposite Juju Cannon, kills by Mitchem, Cannon, sophomore all-conference outside hitter Marisa Doran and sophomore outside hitter Shaelyn Perez and an ace by freshman middle blocker Hannah Matt were part of the run.

Another kill by Perez made it 23-7 for IVC and three points later IVC earned the set after a Santa Ana hitting error.

Santa Ana held a 9-8 lead in the third set, but Irvine Valley came back to go up, 11-10, on a kill by Doran and then never looked back.

A kill by Doran and then a service winner by Perez gave Irvine Valley a 24-15 lead and three points later Doran ended the match with a kill.

Doran finished with a team-high 11 kills and a team-high six digs. Perez contributed nine kills, Cannon had four kills and Mitchem, who is also the reigning 2-year national player of the year, finished with three kills in her three attempts.

Mitchem sat out the final set.

Sophomore all-region setter Hailey Jones finished with 17 assists and freshman setter Makani Wall had 14 sets for IVC in the victory.

Irvine Valley plays again next Wednesday at Saddleback at 6 p.m. and then hosts Cypress at 6 p.m. next Friday in conference matches.