Strong showing for IVC Athletics

Irvine Valley athletics had one of its best finishes during the 2017-18 school season in the National Alliance of Two-Year College Athletic Administrators standings.

The Lasers finished 12th among 109 community college athletic programs in the state.

IVC was competitive with the top schools in the state, most that include football and more than the 13 sports that Irvine Valley offers.

A college is awarded points based on its team’s final positions in post-conference competition. Each college’s top-five men’s and top-five women’s team results count toward the school’s overall point total. Complete standings, scoring criteria, and history of the NATYCAA Cup is available on the CCCAA website, http://cccaasports.org/NATYCAA/index.

NATYCAA is the professional organization of two-year college athletic administrators and membership is open to all two-year institutions throughout the country. The NATYCAA Awards were designed to recognize and reward overall program excellence at the two-year college level.

The criterion for the State Association’s division was developed by the CCCAA in conjunction with the California Community College Sports Information Association. This is the 13th year that NATYCAA has sponsored a State Association’s division.

Irvine Valley had teams shine all year, but especially in the spring season and its women’s sports put the college among the best in the state.

The Lasers placed 12th with 96.0 points. IVC started with 8.5 points in the fall from the men’s soccer team that finished second in the Orange Empire Conference and made a run to the semifinals of the Southern California Regional playoffs.

The IVC women’s volleyball team then scored the maximum 20.0 points by going 27-0 and winning the second state title in school history.

Irvine Valley’s women’s golf team also had a strong run into the state tournament and scored 9.5 points.

During the winter season, Irvine Valley’s women’s basketball team stared the Orange Empire Conference title and made its second-ever trip to the state tournament, garnering 14.5 points.

And then during the spring season, IVC had its men’s volleyball team make the state tournament, its women’s badminton team place among the top four teams in the state, its women’s volleyball team win a conference title and contend for a team state title, along with both the men’s and women’s tennis teams go deep in the playoffs.

The IVC women’s tennis team reached the semifinals of the So. Cal. Regional Playoffs.

The men’s volleyball team scored 10.0 points, the women’s badminton squad also claimed 10.0 points, the women’s beach volleyball team scored 10.0 points, the men’s tennis team came through with 8.5 points and the women’s tennis team finished with 14.5 points for the Lasers.

Mt. San Antonio College continued its run by topping the final standings with a point total of 169 for its fourth NATYCAA Cup win in as many years.

During the stretch, Mt. SAC became the first college to have back-to-back wins, let alone four in a row.

Coming in a close second was Cerritos with 164 points. Fresno City came in third with 147.5 points.

Riverside City placed fourth with 145 points and Santa Rosa came in fifth with 134 points.

Rounding out the top 10 was Orange Coast, Sierra, American River, Diablo Valley and Golden West.