UC Irvine Battles USC In MPSF Semifinals

Anteaters take on Trojans

April 28, 2009

UC IRVINE BATTLES USC IN MPSF SEMIFINAL: No. 1 seed UC Irvine (25-4, 19-3) will battle fifth-seeded USC Thursday (Apr. 30) in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation semifinal match at the Bren Center beginning at 7:30 p.m.

The Anteaters and Trojans will be the second match of the night with No. 3 Cal State Northridge taking on No. 2 Pepperdine at 5:00 p.m

The championship match will be held on Saturday (May 2) at 7:00 p.m.

The winner earns the league's automatic berth in the NCAA Championships held on the campus of BYU at the Smith Fieldhouse May 7-9.

VS THE OPPONENTS: UCI leads USC in the series records, 20-17, winning the last 10 against the Trojans. The Anteaters defeated USC 3-1 at the Bren three weeks ago. UCI used a team effort to defeat the Trojans with Jordan DuFault leading the team with 17 kills, while Taylor Wilson had 15 kills and a career-high seven block assists. The Anteaters hit .338 (60-15-133) for the match, while the Trojans hit .240 (63-27-150). UCI committed just nine service errors to USC's 20 and won the battle at the net, out-blocking USC 15.5 to 6.0. The Trojans were led by Tony Ciarelli with a match-high 23 kills. Murphy Troy added 17 kills, four service aces and 10 digs, while Riley McKibbin recorded 52 set assists and a team-high 14 digs.

UCI won the first meeting of the year, 3-2 in the Galen Center. Wilson led UCI with 19 kills, while Jon Steller played the final three sets recording 14 kills and two service aces. USC’s Troy recorded a match-high 29 kills followed by Ciarelli (17), Austin Zahn (13) and Hunter Current (10).

This will be the first post-season meeting between the two schools.

WILSON NAMED SPORTS IMPORT/AVCA NATIONAL PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Senior Taylor Wilson was named the Sports Imports/AVCA Division I-II Men’s National Player of the Week.

The senior led the No. 1-ranked Anteaters to a 3-1 win over then-No. 9 UCLA in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) quarterfinal match. Wilson hit .412 and put away a career-high 29 kills in 51 swings with eight errors. He also had six digs, two aces and two blocks, while racking up an 8.00 points per game average. The 29 kills topped his previous career-best of 24 set in 2008.

This is the third time Wilson has earned Sports Imports/AVCA Division I-II Player of the Week honors in his career and the second time this season (Feb.2, 2009) he has been recognized.

UCI RANKED NO. 1: UC Irvine remained the No. 1 team in the country in the latest Bison/AVCA Coaches Poll. The Anteaters have been ranked in the nation’s top 10 for 73 consecutive weeks, including No. 1 for 19 of those weeks. UCI has been ranked No. 1 for six weeks this season, second only to Penn State who held the top spot for seven weeks, including the preseason poll. The Anteaters have been ranked No. 1 in four different years (2003, 2006, 2007, 2009) under head coach John Speraw, including three of the last four seasons.