Not much separated the Orange Coast and Irvine Valley men's volleyball teams during the 2023 regular season.
The Lasers and Orange Coast tied for the conference crown with 7-1 records. Each squad scored a win over the other in Orange Empire Conference action.
The recent all-conference honors that were announced shared that message.
The Pirates and the Lasers had the most all-OEC honorees.
After helping guide his team to a conference title in his first year as head coach, Irvine Valley's Rory was named the conference's coach of the year.
IVC sophomore opposite Demetre Gossett and OCC sophomore outside hitter Sebastian Lara were named the co-most valuable players of the year after stellar seasons.
Lara averaged 3.83 kills per set, which was second best in the conference.
He also finished with 245 total kills and had a hitting percentage of .351 (second in conference), while Gossett averaged 3.82 kills per set, which was third best in the OEC, had 252 total kills, hit .327 and averaged an OEC-leading 0.77 aces per set.
Orange Coast also had freshman libero Hide Nakamura, freshman middle blocker Elgin Liu and freshman opposite Trent Douphner make the first team and freshman outside hitter Myles Henderson and freshman setter Landon Seymour earn second-team honors.
Nakamura averaged 2.85 digs per set (second in the conference), Liu averaged 1.02 blocks per set and Douphner averaged 1.27 kills per set for the Pirates.
For Irvine Valley, sophomore libero Adam Schulte and freshman setter Kaina Alvarez were each selected to the first team and sophomore middle blocker Julio Gutierrez and freshman outside hitter Damon Kooiman were picked to the second team.
Schulte averaged 3.34 digs per set and had 224 total digs, which both led the OEC, and Alvarez averaged 8.16 assists per set, which ranked second in conference.
Others from the conference receiving first-team accolades were Santiago Canyon sophomore outside hitter Cameron Grammatica and sophomore middle blocker Adam Masura and Golden West freshman setter Jaden Kodongan.
Grammatica led the conference and the state in kills per set at 4.37 and total kills with 271. He also hit .342 on the year, and Masura led the conference in hitting percentage at .375.
Kodongan was fourth in the conference in assists per set at 6.88.
The full Orange Empire Conference honors can be seen below.
2023 Men's Volleyball All-Orange Empire Conference
Co-Most Valuable Players of the Year:
Demetre Gossett, Irvine Valley
Sebastian Lara, Orange Coast
Coach of the Year: Rory Jones, Irvine Valley
First Team All-Orange Empire Conference
Kaina Alvarez, Irvine Valley
Adam Schulte, Irvine Valley
Hide Nakamura, Orange Coast
Elgin Liu, Orange Coast
Trent Douphner, Orange Coast
Cameron Gramatica, Santiago Canyon
Adam Masura, Santiago Canyon
Jaden Kodongan, Golden West
Second Team All-Orange Empire Conference
Julio Gutierrez, Irvine Valley
Damon Kooiman, Irvine Valley
Myles Henderson, Orange Coast
Landon Seymour, Orange Coast
Caleb Merold, Santiago Canyon
Ezra Vlad, Golden West
Andrew Ramos, Fullerton
Release by Brent Shaver, IVC SID