NCAA CHAMPIONS

Published Sunday, May 6, 2007 12:23 AM PDT
Sports
CHAMPIONS!
VOLLEYBALL: Coach John Speraw's vision of taking Anteaters to the top in five years comes to fruition in Ohio Saturday.
By Barry Faulkner

COLUMBUS, Ohio — There has been plenty written and said about John Speraw's somewhat mysterious and now infamous five-year plan, unveiled in a presentation he used to get the UC Irvine men's volleyball coaching job before the 2003 season.

Saturday, the sideline scientist also revealed a 10-point checklist for victory, and an ABCs approach to psychological player counseling that he used this season.

In the end, Speraw's systematic teachings congealed into a calm, calculating, cohesiveness that helped the Anteaters win a national championship, their first.

UCI (29-5) defeated Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne, 30-25, 30-22, 26-30, 30-23, in front of 4,756 at Ohio State University's St. John Arena.

The first three games were basically blowouts, in which the winning team seized an early lead, steadily increased it and never trailed.

But Game 4, between a pair of teams making their first appearance in an NCAA title match, had enough competitive tension to put knots in players' stomachs and self-doubt in their minds.

The two teams traded points and tie scores from 1-1 to 18-18, as UCI, ranked No. 2 in the nation and seeded No. 2 in the Final Four, looked to close out the match.

IPFW (23-8), ranked No. 7 and seeded No. 4, appeared to be regaining the confidence that helped it win 10 straight and allow the school sometimes known as IPFWho? to elbow its way onto the sport's biggest collegiate stage.

The monotony was finally interrupted when Mastodons' All-American junior outside hitter C.J. Macias whacked a kill attempt out of bounds to give the Anteaters a 20-18 edge.

Another error by Macias, whose 21 kills were nearly as many as the next two Mastodons' hitters combined (22), put UCI up by three.

UC Irvine basically nursed that lead until a quickset kill by first-team All-American middle blocker David Smith put the favored Anteaters up, 26-22.

IPFW called timeout to allow 27-year coach Arnie Ball, whose 457 career victories rank fourth in NCAA history, to dispense a little wisdom of his own.

The Mastodons responded with four straight points to forge yet another deadlock, 26-26.

That's when Speraw called a timeout of his own and, figuratively speaking, had his players all open their instruction manuals to the same page.

"I dreamed up a list of 10 things we need to do in order for us to win and all of those are geared toward pressure situations," Speraw said. "We started instilling them the first five weeks of the season. One of the most important items is playing one point at a time.

"When you're talking about a lot of those things in October or November, they kind of fall on deaf ears. But when it mattered most, when it was 26-all, I told them in a timeout that one of the things we talked about in November was taking it one point at a time. This is just what we need to do right here.

"The system things you put in — to explain the reasons you win and why it's important — don't make sense until you get to a pressure situation. Then, all of a sudden, it makes sense and the guys go 'Alright. Good.' "

What followed was good for UCI, which scored on a Taylor Wilson back-row kill.

After a kill by the Mastodons, a kill in the middle by Smith, and a back-row blast from 6-foot-6 senior opposite Matt Webber, put UCI up, 29-27.

Smith prompted a collective groan from the estimated 150 UCI rooters, most of whom were packed into the lower bleachers at one end of the court, when he committed the Anteaters' 16th service error.

But that groan quickly became cheers of delight as IPFW senior setter Colin Lundeen served into the net to give UC Irvine its clinching point and penultimate victory.

Webber finished with a match-high 22 kills and was named MVP of the Final Four. He posted an impressive .457 hitting percentage Saturday.

UCI seniors Jayson Jablonsky, Smith and Brian Thornton, who joined Webber to form the nucleus of back-to-back Final Four participants, were also named to the all-tournament team.

Jablonsky had 18 kills, five digs and did not commit an error in receiving 38 serves.

Smith, the Anteaters' lone first-team All-American this season [Jablonsky, Webber and Thornton were second-team honorees], had 13 kills in 21 attempts, with just two errors. The nation's hitting percentage leader hit .524 and posted a team-best four block assists.

Thornton had a match-high 59 assists and added six digs, the latter topped only by sophomore outside hitter Wilson's eight.

Wilson added six kills and two block assists, while junior middle blocker Aaron Harrell collected 10 kills in 15 attempts with only one error (a .500 hitting percentage), to go with his two block assists.

Sophomore libero Brent Asuka had five digs, while Jon Steller and Brett Simpson also contributed off the bench.

"I'm obviously incredibly proud of [the four senior starters]," said Speraw, who then lowered his head for several seconds in order to hold back tears. "People ask me about how the five-year plan was done and it was done when we recruited these four men … The effort of these four men and the other guys in the gym right now are the reason we're here.

"Together, I think we've learned so much in the last five years and I think I've learned more from them than they have from me. It has been my great pleasure to work with them."

Speraw, who won two NCAA titles as a player at UCLA and was an assistant coach with three other Bruins national championship teams, said he struggled to find the words to describe his first NCAA crown as a head coach.

"This is pretty big," he said. "It's like a dream; that last point was like a dream I was watching. This is just enormous for me and what I've wanted to do in this sport and with this program, and what it means to me to be a part of UC Irvine. The opportunity [UCI] gave me, I couldn't pay back in any way. If I can do that with the national championship, it would be my small thanks for what [UCI has] given me.

"Obviously I'm proud of what we can do. I think the system we've developed here is good and it's working. But I think it can get better."

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