Daily Pilot Article, UCI @ BYU, Nite #2

Please see original story at:
http://www.dailypilot.com/articles/2007/02/04/sports/dpt-ucivolley04.txt

Published Saturday, February 3, 2007 11:56 PM PST
Sports
'Eaters silence BYU in five
VOLLEYBALL: UC Irvine overcomes top-ranked Cougars, and overflow crowd of 5,600 for first win in Provo since 1991.
By Barry Faulkner

PROVO, Utah — Snow carpets the ground at BYU, but the UC Irvine men's volleyball team figured Saturday night was a chance to plant a seed.

The Anteaters, ranked No. 2, were swept by the top-ranked Cougars in Friday's Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match before an overflow crowd. Another 5,600 filled the Smith fieldhouse Saturday, but the Cougar rooters left disappointed after UCI rebounded for a 23-30, 30-23, 33-31, 29-31, 15-8 victory.

"We were [ticked] at ourselves for how badly we played last night," UCI senior setter Brian Thornton said. "We wanted to get a little redemption."

The Anteaters (11-2, 6-2 in conference) outdid the Cougars (9-1, 5-1) in hitting, blocking, serving and passing to earn their first win in Provo since 1991.

UCI hit .312 as a team, 23 points better than BYU, and ahead of the Cougars, 17 1/2 -14 in team blocks.

The 17 1/2 blocks were a season high for the 'Eaters.

Senior Jayson Jablonsky, the 2006 National and MPSF Player of the Year, who hit .000 Friday, led the winners with 21 kills (hitting .381), and 10 digs. He also had two of UCI's five aces and added two block assists.

Senior All-American Matt Webber, who also hit .000 Friday, produced 14 kills and hit .393 to go with two aces and six block assists.

Senior middle blocker David Smith had 10 kills, hit .562, and led the team with 10 block assists, while junior middle Aaron Harrell added 13 kills and three block assists.

"I think this win shows how we can turn it around after being crushed last night," Jablonsky said. "After [Friday] everybody got together and we talked about wanting to come out and have some fun and just play Irvine volleyball."

UCI Coach John Speraw said Jablonsky and Webber came to the party Saturday, helping push the Anteaters over the top.

"We had some guys who hadn't played well the last couple weeks who came back and played well tonight," said Speraw, who ranked the victory near the top during his five-seasons at the UCI helm. "Specifically, both Jablonsky and Webber had great nights tonight."

Harrell, who when not on the court was yelling constant encouragement to his teammates between serves, said it was an emotional victory.

"I was playing so hard, I literally almost fainted a couple times on the court," said Harrell, who delivered the match-ending kill. "At the end of Game 4, I was thinking, 'We gotta win this now, because I don't think I can last another game.' But that fifth game was just pure adrenaline. I think I'm probably going to crash out in an hour here. We were just playing our hearts out and it was tiring."

BYU, which Speraw calls the most physical team in America because of its superior height and athleticism, controlled the opening game to extend its winning streak to 23 straight games.

But UCI, which swept BYU at home last season, used improved passing to work its attack more efficiently in the second and third games, interrupting the Cougars' streak of seven straight sweeps.

While Jablonsky, Webber and freshman Cole Reinholm (eight kills off the bench), gave Thornton (58 assists) better production outside, Smith and Harrell continued to abuse their rival middle blockers with an efficient quick attack.

"I think the main thing was, they won the serve-receive battle, which was a complete opposite of last night," BYU interim co-coach Ryan Millar said. "Last night, we passed and served better and [the Anteaters] passed and served better tonight.

In our sport, serving and service receive are the two most important things by far. If you win those two things, you're going to win 80 or 90% of the time, because it's too hard to run an effective, flowing offense when you're not passing the ball that well. [The Anteaters] could go to their middles and they did that a lot. They have good middles. Last night, they were effective, but they couldn't go to them as much, because we served better."

UCI had 20 service errors, compared to 15 for BYU Friday. Saturday, BYU misfired on 22 serves, to UCI's 17.

UCI rallied from a 29-27 deficit to win Game 3, with Webber finalizing with a block of Robby Stowell to interrupt the crowd frenzy.

"One of the toughest things about playing at BYU is the crowd," Harrell said. "We knew if we took crowd the crowd out of it, it would be a big advantage. The biggest thing we wanted to do was to shut this crowd up and we were able to do that. You could see that when the crowd wasn't in it, it was hard for [the Cougars] to get going."

BYU got it going to take Game 4, but UCI seized control of the deciding game, after BYU pulled to within 6-5.

"We sided out 100% in the fifth game, so we were doing the things we needed to do," Speraw said. "When we're doing that, we can beat anyone, including a team as big and talented as BYU."

"UCI had a spectacular fifth game and we played terrible," said Millar, who noted this would not likely be the final meeting between the two schools this season.

"We're definitely going to play them again," said Millar, who might face UCI in the MPSF Tournament. "Hopefully, it's here again and we have another packed house."

Even so, UCI now knows it can overcome the home-court advantage in Provo.

Consider that seed planted.