UCI to host volleyball final four

IRVINE — Score another upset for the UC Irvine men’s volleyball program, which won a battle against UCLA to host the four-team 2008 NCAA championship at the Bren Events Center.

“We’re big on upsets here,” said UCI men’s volleyball Coach John Speraw, who spoke Thursday at UCI as part of the official announcement that the sport’s final four was coming to campus May 1 and 3, 2008.

Speraw said the fact that the Bren Center seats only 5,000 — a relatively small venue for college arenas — was a benefit, rather than a concern for NCAA officials.

“The NCAA has told me on a couple different occasions that they’re concerned with how the event is viewed on television,” Speraw said. “So they’re as much concerned about having every seat filled as they are attempting to fill a 10,000-seat arena and having empty seats.

“They are encouraging schools with venues this size to apply to host the event because they are very event conscious,” he said. “They want a raucous crowd, they want it packed, and they want it to look good on TV.

“Clearly we can do that here at the Bren Center. Selling this place out for a NCAA final four I don’t think is going to be hard. I think the biggest issue is making people understand they better buy their tickets early.”

Hosting the NCAA championship — UCI, ranked No. 1 in the nation, hosted the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship last season for the first time — was part of Speraw’s vision when the former UCLA assistant took over the Anteaters program before the 2003 season.

“It was in the five-year program I wrote for my interview here, but we’ll take it in the sixth year,” Speraw said. “Our mission is to provide our student-athletes with the finest collegiate volleyball experience in the United States of America…. We want to be a big-time program.”

But next season may be a rebuilding year for the Anteaters, who won the program’s first Mountain Pacific Sports Federation regular-season title last year, advanced to the NCAA semifinals at Penn State, and were ranked No. 1 for eight straight weeks.

UCI, with six of seven starters back, has opened 4-0. The Anteaters host No. 4-ranked Hawaii on Friday and Saturday night at the Bren Center.

Four of this year’s starters are seniors, including 2006 NCAA and Mountain Pacific Sports Federation player of the year Jayson Jablonsky, 2006 All-Americans Matt Webber and Brian Thornton, as well as standout David Smith.

“We’re going to have a young team next year,” Speraw said. “I don’t anticipate us being No. 1 at the beginning of [2008]. Hopefully, we can have an opportunity to make a run at the end.”

Petrina Long, a former associate athletic director and senior women’s administrator at UCI who has a similar position at UCLA and is a member of the NCAA men’s volleyball committee, said in a statement that the major commitment the university had made to UCI men’s volleyball, the program’s success in hosting the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship last spring, and Orange County’s status as a hotbed for club and high school volleyball talent, were additional factors in the decision.

This year’s NCAA championship is at Ohio State. This is the first time UCI has held an NCAA championship event on campus. It was the host of a water polo championship in 1998, but that was held at Corona del Mar High. UCI has also been the host of water polo championships held in Long Beach.