‘Eaters rip through Patriots

There are areas in which the UC Irvine men’s volleyball team will continue to make progress as the season rolls on. But confidence may not be one of them.

Fresh off a chest-thumping, three-match sweep of then-No. 3-ranked Penn State, then-No. 10 Ohio State and host Hawaii in a four-day tournament in Honolulu, the No. 6-ranked Anteaters had little trouble with winless George Mason on Wednesday at the Bren Events Center.

UCI (4-1), which was embarrassed in a three-set loss to Lewis in the season opener at home on Jan. 5, earned its third straight sweep by pounding the Patriots, 25-18, 25-22, 25-18, in front of 399 spectators.

UCI senior opposite Zack La Cavera had a match-high 14 kills and led all players with two service aces. He added two solo blocks and two block assists.

Sophomore outside hitter Tamir Hershko, the national and MPSF Player of the Week after earning tournament MVP laurels in Hawaii, had 11 kills and a .500 hitting percentage for the winners.

UCI hit .370 as a team, 219 points better than George Mason (0-4) and posted a 27-17 advantage in digs to cruise to victory in 77 minutes.

“We were pretty efficient, I think,” said UCI Coach David Kniffin, whose team trailed early in each set, but overwhelmed the visitors with size, power and skill. “I don’t think we had the same poise we showed in Hawaii, but in terms of what we’re capable of, I think we showed glimpses of it and I think we were steady enough.”

It was the final match for UCI before opening Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play Saturday at No. 11-ranked Long Beach State.

“I feel confident in what we can do and that we are physical enough and we are mentally steady enough to compete with anyone right now,” Kniffin said. “We want to be much better with our ball control and we want to reduce the number of errors. But in terms of offensive potency, I feel really good about what we’re doing.”

Hershko added nine digs, one shy of senior All-American libero Michael Brinkley, who also chipped in five set assists.

Sophomore setter Michael Saeta, like La Cavera an all-tournament performer in Hawaii, had 40 assists to trigger an attack that included sophomore middle blocker Andrew Benz (seven kills and a .600 percentage), junior Kyle Russell (seven kills and three block assists), and junior middle blocker Jason Agopian (five kills and a match-high four block assists).

UCI hit .440 in the opening set and .417 in the finale, at the end of which George Mason strung together a handful of blocks to finish with an 8-6.5 advantage in team blocks for the match.

Still, La Cavera was less than thrilled with his team’s performance.

“We just came off that really great trip to Hawaii, and I think that was a really big confidence boost for our guys,” La Cavera said. “We came into this match literally on kind of a high from that, and, even though we won in three, I think we got exposed a little.”

Exposed may be quibbling a bit, but the Anteaters did appear to, at times, utilize what La Cavera termed cruise control.

But George Mason would be hard-pressed to control any perception that it was crushed by a UCI team picked to finish fifth in the MPSF after having won four NCAA titles in the previous eight seasons.