Irvine Valley

IRVINE — The Orange Coast College women’s volleyball team served notice it might not be too willing to pass the torch of Orange Empire Conference supremacy to host Irvine Valley Friday night. But, after the Pirates’ first-game victory, the Lasers proceeded to snatch it from the visitors and seemed to begin swinging it at their collective head. The result was a 25-30, 30-18, 30-17, 30-25 triumph that made IVC (14-0, 7-0 in conference) the likely heir to the conference throne.

In a battle of two of the state's top three powers, the visiting Orange Coast College women's volleyball team defeated Irvine Valley, 33-35, 30-25, 30-28, 30-25, in Orange Empire Conference action Wednesday night to remain undefeated and break the Lasers' six-match unbeaten streak. Donka Drozd led the Pirates, ranked second in the state, with 25 kills while setter Amber McCarthy finished with 67 assists and 11 digs. The Lasers, No. 3 in the state, led, 15-13, in the fourth game, but couldn't hold on as Brenda Bailey's block gave OCC (7-0, 2-0 in the OEC)

COSTA MESA - Monica Ortega tossed a complete-game shutout to lead the Orange Coast College softball team to a 10-0 mercy win over visiting Irvine Valley Wednesday. Ortega also drove in two runs, while Renee Snyder had a hit and two RBIs for the Pirates (15-18, 4-9 in conference). OCC will host Cypress on Wednesday at 3 p.m. ORANGE EMPIRE CONFERENCE Orange Coast 10, Irvine Valley 0 Irvine Valley 000 00 - 0 4 1 Orange Coast 700 30 - 10 7 2 Heath and Bernal; Ortega and Valdez.

COSTA MESA - The Orange Coast College softball team gave up four unearned runs in Monday's 5-3 Orange Empire Conference loss to visiting Irvine Valley. Kim Guillen pitched a complete-game four-hitter for the Pirates (5-9-1, 0-7 in conference), but six OCC errors proved to be too much to overcome. ORANGE EMPIRE CONFERENCE Irvine Valley 5, Orange Coast 3 Irvine Valley 001 031 0 - 5 4 2 Orange Coast 200 001 0 - 3 6 6 Le Roux and Rodley; Guillen and Miles.

The Pacific Coast Conference men’s volleyball season has barely begun, but already there’s a ring of finality to the schedule for Orange Coast College. The Pirates (5-2, 1-0 in conference) play host to Irvine Valley (4-3, 1-0) tonight at 6 in a conference clash that is a rematch of last year’s state final. The Lasers, coached by former Estancia High head man Tom Pestolesi, who also worked as an assistant at Newport Harbor, trounced OCC, 30-24, 30-23, 30-20, to claim the 2008 state crown.

COSTA MESA - The Orange Coast College women's tennis team made quick work of visiting Irvine Valley with a 9-0 Orange Empire Conference win Thursday afternoon. The Pirates (4-1, 2-0 in conference) did not lose a set the entire day as Veronica Sommer and Stephanie Chang led the charge. The Pirates will compete at the Southwestern College tournament beginning today at 2 p.m. ORANGE EMPIRE CONFERENCE Orange Coast 9, Irvine Valley 0 Singles - Sommer (OCC)

BASEBALL Orange Coast 5, Irvine Valley 2 COSTA MESA - The Orange Empire Conference champion Pirates concluded their regular season with a home win Thursday at OCC. Joel Licon had a two-RBI single to left for OCC in the sixth inning, helping the Pirates (31-4-1, 18-3 in conference) rally from a 2-0 deficit. Eilert Meyers, Boog Powell and Stefan Sabol also had RBIs for OCC. Brandon Brennan improved to 9-1 after pitching five innings of relief. He allowed a run on three hits, striking out five and walking one. Josh Evans pitched a scoreless nitnh to earn his second save of the year.

MEN'S GOLF Orange Empire Conference meet SANTA ANA - Marcus Mercado-Kiel shot even-par 72 to share medalist honors and lead Orange Coast to a 7-0 finish on Wednesday at Santa Ana Country Club. Mercado-Kiel was co-medalist with Crockett Stearns of Irvine Valley. Jaime Moreno (74), Chris Cochran (78), Mike Squillace (79) and Adam Oser (80) also scored for the Pirates, who are 34-1 in the OEC. OCC shot 383 to win, while Santiago Canyon (389), Palomar (391)

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL UC Irvine 62, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo 60 SAN LUIS OBISPO - Senior Kassandra McCalister had 16 points and junior Anete Kintsone added 16 to lead the visiting Anteaters in the Big West Conference game Saturday. It was UCI's fourth straight win, all against conference competition. Senior Kiara Belen had nine points and five rebounds, while Klintsone chipped in six rebounds to help UCI improve to 8-10, 4-2 in conference. Jacqueline Marshall made a 14-foot jumper to break a 59-59 tie for UCI with 19 seconds left and, after a Cal Poly free throw, Kelly Meggs made one free throw to finalize the scoring with six seconds left.

SANTA ANA - The Irvine Valley College men's basketball team opened up Orange Empire Conference play Friday night against Santa Ana College, and it was a good thing the game wasn't scored on style points. Santa Ana likes to drag its opponents into the dirt and make it a scrap, and Friday's matchup certainly was grimy. Irvine Valley (14-3, 1-0 in conference) made just 16 of 56 field goal attempts (28.6%) including a dismal one for 20 from beyond the three-point line, but still managed to emerge on top with a 46-40 victory.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL UC Irvine 81, Sacramento State 75 IRVINE — Senior Kassandra McCalister scored 26 points to propel UCI (4-5) in the nonconference home game Sunday. UCI has won three straight. Jazmyne White had 12 points, 11 rebounds and three assists, while Anete Klintsone had 12 points and four assists off the bench for UCI. The Anteaters forced 26 turnovers. Irvine Valley 36, Orange Coast 34 IRVINE — Michelle Angel had 10 points to lead the Pirates in the third-place game of the Irvine Valley Tournament on Saturday.

COSTA MESA - The referee turned to the Orange Coast College sideline to say something to Coach Kevin Smith, who sat on the bench with his men's soccer team down one goal late. "A minimum of three," the ref said. "Three what?" someone asked on the bench. The three was for the minutes left in the match on Tuesday. In a matter of seconds, the three turned out to be the third goal Irvine Valley College put away to rally and beat the host Pirates, 3-1. The Lasers scored at the start of stoppage time of the Orange Empire Conference match, which got away from OCC in the final 22 minutes.

Player turnover is fast and furious at the junior college level, but Irvine Valley College men's soccer Coach Martin McGrogan doesn't seem to accept the notion of a "rebuilding" year. McGrogan was the program's first coach in 1990, and since then the team has had just three losing seasons, winning one national title and two state titles and was runner-up in the state once. McGrogan, though, deflects praise and gives thanks to the athletes in the Irvine and surrounding areas. "We've been really lucky the past 20 years, we've been fairly consistent," he said.

Irvine Valley College women's volleyball Coach Tom Pestolesi has a history of success, taking the team to the state championship tournament five times, including a third-place finish as recently as 2009. The Lasers are coming off an injury-plagued 2010 season, going 14-7 overall and placing fourth in the Orange Empire Conference before enduring a second-round exit in the Southern California Regional playoffs. But ask Pestolesi about pressure to return the program to state championship contention and he chuckles.

Costa Mesa High principal Phil D'Agostino announced the school's new baseball coach, Jason Smith, with a bit of excitement and elation Monday. The relief comes from what is expected to be the final head coach hiring heading into the 2011-12 school year. D'Agostino filled openings at boys' and girls' athletic director, boys' soccer and football. The excitement comes from Smith, who enters with what D'Agostino called an impressive background. Smith is a former Orange Coast College assistant coach and player who last coached at La Quinta High in Westminster.

When entrepreneur Rana Sabeh couldn't find available vendor space to showcase her discount natural products business, she decided to create her own alternative "green" market. The Orange County Green Market debuts Aug. 6 at the Irvine Valley College. Everything from eco-friendly cleaning supplies and services, repurposed accessories, natural skin care products and Sabeh's own business, Healthy Bargains, will be open to the public from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays in the college's parking lot. "I figured that if I'm an eco-friendly vendor trying to get out on the market and I can't, then there must be others like me who are also having a hard time," Sabeh, a Huntington Beach resident, said of her decision to launch the market.