Irvine Valley spoils Vaqueros’ season opener, 3-1

Grant Marrochi collected 12 kills and hit .800 on Wednesday night, leading Irvine Valley to a 3-1 win over SBCC in the men's volleyball opener at the Sports Pavilion. The scores were 25-19, 23-25, 25-16, 28-26.

The fourth set was an instant classic with 18 ties and three lead changes. The Vaqueros led 20-18 after a cut shot by left-hander Calvin Sanborn. IVC, which made the state Final 4 last year, rallied to take a 24-23 lead and the Vaqueros staved off three match points before Demetre Gossette served his seventh ace to close out the 28-26 victory.

Sanborn paced the Vaqueros with 18 kills and eight digs. Trent Lingruen added 11 kills and 6-7 sophomore Blake Lockhart contributed eight kills, seven digs and five blocks. Scott Sanborn (Calvin's older brother) led in digs with 16.

"I thought it was a good match on both sides," said SBCC's third-year coach Jon Newton. "It's the first match of the year and we're still trying to figure things out with a few new guys in our starting lineup and them getting used to the speed of play. There's always a learning curve and you could see the improvement as the game went on.

"Irvine is going to be a playoff team and it was nice to see us compete with them."

The Vaqueros went on a 6-0 run to take an 11-6 lead in the second set. They expanded the margin to seven points (19-12) on a blast by Lingruen, a 6-3 freshman from Tahoe City. The Lasers got within a point at 21-20, 23-22 and 24-23 before the Vaqueros won it when an Irvine serve sailed long.

IVC served 15 aces and the Vaqueros had six aces and 15 service errors.

"I saw a lot of good things and there's a lot of room to grow," said Newton. "There's a lot of things we can fix immediately. That was a high level team and we saw where we need to tighten up and make some changes."

The Vaqueros will travel to San Diego to take on San Diego Miramar on Friday at 3 p.m.