Irvine Valley's women's volleyball team dropped its first match of the 2021 season Wednesday night at MiraCosta.
The Lasers, ranked sixth in the state in the first California Community College Women's Volleyball Coaches Association poll of the season, fell to No. 17 MiraCosta, 25-18, 20-25, 21-25, 25-17, 15-11.
Irvine Valley dropped the first set, won the next two, but couldn't hold on.
The fifth set was tight until MiraCosta closed out the set on a scoring run.
Both teams struggled on offense with Irvine Valley hitting .141 and MiraCosta hitting .078.
The Lasers were paced by freshman opposite Jalyi Nealy with 16 kills and freshman outside hitter Tasha Mae ending with 11 kills.
Freshman middle blocker Kendall Fraser and freshman Kaitlyn Karsten each contributed five kills.
Freshman setter Maddie Harkey ended with 35 assists, freshman outside hitter Jaclyn Sanchez had 15 digs and sophomore libero Alexandra Pestolis finished with 14 digs.
The Lasers record fell to 2-1 overall, while MiraCosta improved to 4-1 overall.
Irvine Valley is back in action with another tough match on Saturday, taking on the second-ranked team in the state, San Diego Mesa, on the road at 12 p.m.
