Hawaii Downed in 5

Published Sunday, April 22, 2007 12:25 AM PDT
Sports
Anteaters grab momentum, rally for victory
VOLLEYBALL: Jablonsky records team-high 23 kills to help energize crowd in UC Irvine's five-game win in MPSF quarterfinal.

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By Barry Faulkner

IRVINE — As they pounded, dug and served their way to victory in both of the first two games Saturday night, players for the visiting Hawaii men's volleyball team unleashed primal screams, one after another.

They screamed heading off the court and into their timeout huddle. They screamed inside their team huddles on the court between points. And they screamed over the silence their strong start provoked from the partisan UC Irvine crowd in the quarterfinals of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament.

The Anteaters, meanwhile, remained quiet, encouraged themselves to be patient, vowed not to fear defeat and kept plugging, until they could generate enough momentum to ignite both their lineup and their crowd.

Their patience was, eventually, rewarded as the No. 3-ranked hosts rallied for a 26-30, 27-30, 30-23, 30-22, 15-11 triumph. The win propelled the Anteaters (25-5) into the MPSF semifinals, Thursday at approximately 8:30 p.m. against No. 2-ranked BYU (19-4) at Pepperdine.

UCI split two matches at BYU in the regular season.

"[The key to turning it around] was basically staying patient," said UCI senior outside hitter Jayson Jablonsky, who led the winners with 23 kills and three service aces. "[The Warriors] were playing unbelievable the whole first two games. They were digging everything. But we wanted to stay patient, knowing we would have our chances."

UCI committed 10 service errors in the first game and held just one lead in the first two games (12-11 in Game 1).

But with the score tied, 19-19, in Game 3, UCI strung together five straight points — two on kills by Jablonsky, another on a Matt Webber stuff block and another on a Webber kill.

With the crowd of 852 vociferously lending its support, Coach John Speraw's Anteaters rode the emotion of the crowd, as well as that generated by its lineup, to win going away.

Though Jablonsky, Webber (18 kills) senior middle blocker David Smith (a season-high 16) and sophomore Taylor Wilson (12) were all finding holes in the once impenetrable Hawaii defense, it seemed Jablonsky's kills created the biggest surge from the stands.

The 2006 MPSF and National Player of the Year punctuated several kills in the final two games by curling his arms in front of him, fists clinched, and pulling his elbows to his ribs.

"His hitting numbers don't look great," Speraw said of Jablonsky, who finished with a .245 hitting percentage. "But he came up big in transition and scoring opportunities, especially in Game 4 and Game 5. There was only one time [during those two games] that he really got stuffed.

"[Jablonsky] was huge, his serving was huge and he played a great volleyball match," Speraw said. "When Jayson starts to get pumped up, you know the energy on our team is really good. He isn't always [demonstrative] like that, and so when he starts getting like that, you know things are rolling for us. He's not the vocal guy, and he never will be. But when the situation demands it, he has stepped up and done a great job for us."

Jablonsky who said his team remembered last season's uneventful postseason [they lost in the MPSF semifinals at home to Long Beach State after earning a bye through the quarterfinals and were defeated in the NCAA semifinals by host Penn State], said he was motivated not to see his career end.

"I'm more of quiet guy, but for those last three games, I had to be loud," Jablonsky said. "You've just got to go for it, because if you lose, there's nothing left.

Speraw said his team's willingness to continue to go for it from the service line, also helped turn the tide.

"I'm really, really happy the way we served," Speraw said. "Because after Game 2, when we missed all those serves in the first two games, mostly Game 1, we went back there and just served with reckless abandon. We were aggressive. This whole match was based on serving and passing.

Speraw also said balance helped his team overcome a Hawaii attack that relied on Lauri Hakala (25 kills) and Matt Vanzant (17).

"They relied on two guys pretty heavily and in Game 5, the amount of swings those two guys took caught up to them. I can't say enough for the match Lauri Hakala had. And I can't say enough about the season Hawaii had. They were 3-13 in league, and they came real close to going to the MPSF semifinals."

Hawaii finished 13-14.

UCI senior setter Brian Thornton amassed 72 assists, while sophomore libero Brent Asuka matched Wilson with a team-high 11 digs.

Taylor and Thornton also had two aces apiece.