After winning two straight matches, Irvine Valley's men's volleyball team fell in four sets (19-25, 25-18, 25-20, 25-11) Wednesday on the road against a strong Santa Monica squad.
The Lasers' record went to 3-4 overall.
Santa Monica improved to 6-3 overall and is in the lead in the Northern Region-Central division.
Irvine Valley jumped out to a quick lead by winning the first set, 25-19.
The Lasers hit .667 as a team with 13 kills on just one error in 18 attempts.
But after that first set, it was all Santa Monica.
The Corsairs took the next three sets, including domination in the fourth and final frame.
IVC ened up hitting .231 as a team in the afternoon match. Santa Monica hit .350 as a squad.
For Irvine Valley, freshman outside hitter Conor Engelbrecht finished with 14 kills and hit .355.
And freshman outside hitter Kaarin Shiari ended with nine kills, hit .412 and added five digs.
Freshman setter Isiah Sibbitt ran the offense with 31 assists and had five digs and sophomore libero Cage Gonzalez contributed 15 digs for the Lasers.
Irvine Valley hosts Long Beach City in another tough match on Friday at 6 p.m.
