WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!!

April 28, 2007

ANTEATERS WIN FIRST EVER MPSF CHAMPIONSHIP WITH 3-2 WIN OVER NO. 1 PEPPERDINE
(Boxscore)

Malibu, Calif. -- No. 2 UC Irvine beat No. 1 Pepperdine, 3-2 (27-30, 24-30, 30-28, 30-28, 16-14) in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship match at Firestone Fieldhouse Saturday and will advance to the NCAA Championship as the MPSF automatic bid.

UCI's five game magic was alive and well as the Anteaters improve to 27-6. The 27 victories ties the school record set last season (27-4). The Anteaters recieve the MPSF automatic bid into the NCAA Championship hosted by Ohio State beginning Thursday, May 3. The Anteaters seeding and opponent will be revealed tommorrow at 10:30 a.m. on ESPNews. Pepperdine goes to 26-2 overall, snapping their 23-match winning streak.

The balanced Anteater attack was led by senior Matt Webber with a season-high 25 kills and sophomore Taylor Wilson's career-high 21 kills. Senior Jayson Jablosnky added 20 kills and senior middle blocker David Smith adding 12 kills, hitting .923 (12-013), the second best mark in a match, behind his own school record .938 set earlier this season. Smith also recorded a team-high seven blocks. Aaron Harrell posted seven kills, while setter Brian Thornton had a career-high 78 assists to go with seven digs. Following tonight's action, Thornton becomes UCI's all-time assist leader with 4, 552 in his career, passing Cory Hinkle's old mark of 4,547 set in 2000. Libero Brent Asuka had a team-best eight digs.

Pepperdine was led by Paul carroll with 18 kills followed by Greg Gaudino with 15. Tom Hulse added 12 kills, hitting .714 (12-2-14) and J.D. Schleppenbach had 11 kills and shared the team lead in digs with Grobe and Tanner Sutherland at 7.

The Anteaters hit .370 for the match, while Pepperdine hit .301. UCI out-blocked the Waves 12-10. UCI committed 30 service errors, the second most behind the semifinal match when they committed 32.

UC Irvine opened a 10-7 lead on a Taylor Wilson kill, but the lead was short lived as the Waves went on a 5-2 run to knot the score at 12-12. The teams would trade points until 14-14 when Pepperdine would use kills by Tom Hulse and Greg Gaudino and an Anteater attacking error to push the lead to 17-14. UCI would close to 25-24 on a Matt Webber kill, but Gaudino and Carroll recorded back-to-back kills to extend the lead to 27-24. The Waves would close out the set and win the game 30-27. Wilson led the Anteater attack with seven kills.

Pepperdine continued to roll, winning game two 30-24. The Waves opened a 14-11 lead on a pair of UCI miscues and a kill by Carroll. The Waves wouldn't trail after that point, taking advantage of eight UCI service errors.

With the Waves leading 25-24 in game three, Jayson Jablosnky and David Smith blocked Carroll to tie the score at 25-25. A pair of Pepperdine attempts sailed wide to give UCI the 27-25 advantage. Following an Anteater service error, David Smith pounded two kills to give UCI game point. The Waves would score the next two before Smith put another away from the middle for the 30-28 victory.

Game four saw 23 ties and seven lead changes with the Anteaters forcing game five once again with the 30-28 victory. With the score knotted at 28-28, Taylor Wilson put away balls on back-to-back attempts to give UCI the win. Wilson had seven kills to lead the 'Eaters in the set.

Pepperdine jumped out to a 4-1 lead in game five, but the Anteaters rallied out of a timeout to tie the score at 4-4 following a Webber service ace and two carroll attack errors, the last rejected at the net by a Jablonsky/Smith block. The teams remained close until the Waves used a kill by Gaudino and an overpass kill by Jon Grobe to take the 11-9 lead. A UCI service error gave the Waves the 13-11 advantage before a Pepperdine service error was followed by a kill by Wilson and another from Jablonsky to give UCI the 14-13 edge. A Grobe kill tied the score again (14-14). Jablonsky pounded a kill before a Pepperdine attack failed to give UCI the game, match and championship.