Don't call UCI seniors nobodies

Published Sunday, May 6, 2007 12:23 AM PDT
Sports
Don't call UCI seniors nobodies
NCAA FINAL FOUR NOTEBOOK: Four starters helped put UCI on the volleyball map with national title.
By Barry Faulkner

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A panel of media voted UC Irvine senior opposite Matt Webber Most Valuable Player of the NCAA men's volleyball championship, won by the Anteaters Thursday before 4,756 spectators at Ohio State's St. John Arena Saturday.

But, as if to emphasize the team focus that has carried Coach John Speraw's squad to back-to-back Final Four appearances, Webber almost refused to accept credit.

"The MVP doesn't really mean much, because we were a team and we played as a team the whole way through," said the 6-foot-6 second-team All-American, who had a team-best 22 kills in 35 attempts, with only six errors, to record an impressive .457 hitting percentage.

"For one person to be singled out, it doesn't make sense. I mean, these guys here right beside me [fellow seniors Jayson Jablonsky, Brian Thornton and David Smith at a post-match press conference], we're a bunch of nobodies if we don't play well together. I mean, I wouldn't have been MVP if Thornton wasn't flowing me balls and Jablonsky wasn't passing those balls and Smith wasn't blocking those balls.

"To get MVP is a big honor and I share it with the rest of the team."

SENIORS LEAVE LEGACY

Webber shared a lot with his fellow seniors, who in addition to accomplishing their ultimate goal of winning a national championship, left their indelible mark on the program, as well as the school record book.

Jablonsky, a lightly recruited 6-foot-5 outside hitter out of Esperanza High in Yorba Linda, was the National and Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Player of the Year as a junior.

This season, he earned second-team All-American honors and was a second-team All-MPSF performer.

Jablonsky finished with 1,528 career kills, ranking No. 2 in UCI annals, and his 128 service aces rank No. 1.

Webber, who was planning to go to the Coast Guard Academy, before UCI coaches spotted him in a club tournament the summer after his high school graduation and offered him a scholarship, was a consistently potent hitter.

A 6-6 left-hander, he amassed 1,382 kills, finishing No. 4 on the school's all-time list. His 47 service aces this season set a school record and his 107 career aces are topped only by Jablonsky on the Anteaters' all-time list.

Webber earned second-team All-American plaudits as a senior, after being named first-team All-American as a junior. He was first-team All-MPSF as a junior and second-team all-conference this season.

Smith, a 6-7 middle blocker from Saugus, planned on walking on at UC Santa Barbara, before UCI came through with a scholarship offer.

An engineering major, Smith initially gained recognition for succeeding in spite of a hearing impairment that forces him to wear hearing aids in both ears and read lips to communicate.

But he worked his way to being a first-team All-American and first-team All-MPSF honoree as a senior. He received honorable mention in the All-MPSF voting as a junior.

Smith's 510 total blocks and his 461 block assists are tops in UCI history and his .559 hitting percentage this season led the nation and set a school single-season record.

Thornton, a 6-3 walk-on out of San Clemente High, missed most of his freshman year with mononucleosis. But he eventually earned a scholarship and has become one of the most consistently efficient and productive setters in the nation ever since.

Thornton's 1,645 assists this season broke first-year assistant coach David Kniffin's single-season school record (1,632) and gave Thornton 4,662 for his career, tops in school history.

Thornton was a second-team All-American as a junior and senior. He was second-team All-MPSF as a junior and third-team all-conference this season.

WARM WELCOME HOME

The UCI team is scheduled to return to John Wayne Airport around 5 p.m. today and a UCI athletic department official said they are expected to be met by a sizable crowd of supporters.

CELEBRATION PLANS BEGIN

UCI Athletic Director Bob Chichester said that because of Speraw's superstitious nature, plans for a celebration rally, parade and/or reception for the national champion men's volleyball team have been unofficial at best to this point.

"[An organized celebration] is something [Speraw] didn't want to talk about it, so I haven't talked about it," Chichester said. "I know behind the scenes, the staff has probably talked about things, so plans could be [forthcoming]."

Chichester also said he hopes the accomplishment gets its full due at the school.

"I just hope they appreciate it back home," Chichester said. "I really hope that the campus community appreciates the significance of this and I hope they recognize the potential that our athletic department has, because of this type of effort. And I hope they realize what this can do for our campus, the name recognition and the visibility and all the positives that we always talk about when we're asked `Why do you have athletic programs.'

"It's just for this reason and this accomplishment has been done by student-athletes and great young men."

THE SPITTLE IMAGE

Paul Spittle, the team captain on UCI's 2006 NCAA semifinalist, who was the only starter lost to graduation, also had a presence at the 2007 Final Four.

Spittle, whose younger brothers Nick and Anthony are on the team, was in attendance at Saturday's championship match.

His image was also featured in the official event program, in an advertisement for a shoe company.

FLEDGLING FAN BASE

NCAA officials were reportedly pleased with the 4,756 attendance for the championship match, though it was just more than one-third of the 13,200-seat capacity of St. John Arena.

According to attendance figures from all but three of 38 championship finals in the event program [an average of the 35 was added to give a 38-year total], 220,640 have attended the NCAA men's volleyball title match over the years.

To put that in perspective, 211,151 was the combined attendance of the final two Ohio State home football games last season.

UC Irvine is the host of the 2008 NCAA Championship.

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BARRY FAULKNER may be reached at (714) 966-4615 or at barry.faulkner@latimes.com.