Irvine Valley hoping pieces fit

"She was living in Irvine and wanted to play volleyball," Pestolesi said. "She is friends with a couple of the men's players, and she contacted me. She's a pretty athletic kid."

IVC's 8-6 mark in the Orange Empire Conference was good enough for fourth place last season behind Cypress, Fullerton and Orange Coast College. Pestolesi believes his team has the ability to improve on that.

"We have some athleticism, a little bit of height, we definitely have really good volleyball players," he said. "If we coaches don't mess it up, we have a chance to be a pretty good team.

"I love the parts we have a lot. We'll see how it all fits together. We have to remind ourselves as coaches to be patient and we have to remind the players to be patient."

Many of IVC's players have been active during the offseason, some of them competing in sand volleyball matches at IVC in May. The matches featured four doubles matches and one 4-on-4 match.

Against Fullerton JC, IVC won three of four doubles match and the 4-on-4 match to win the overall event, 4-1. They also beat NAIA school Concordia, 3-2, after splitting the four doubles matches and then winning the 4-on-4 match.

"It's a group that's really close," Pestolesi said. "The offseason went really well. Hopefully it's an indication of what we have and it will pan out well."

The Lasers play a scrimmage against Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo on Aug. 27, then play the alumni match Sept. 2 before opening the season Sept. 7 at College of the Canyons.