Men’s Volleyball: ‘Eaters sweep CSUN
The beat goes on for the UC Irvine men’s volleyball team. The beatdowns also.
The No. 5-ranked Anteaters continued to make hay against the lower two-thirds of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation standings, sweeping Cal State Northridge, 25-16, 25-17, 26-24, in front of 603 on Wednesday at the Bren Events Center.
Against the eight teams below the top-third of the MPSF, UCI has managed six sweeps, as well as a pair of four-game road triumphs over BYU. Against the top four teams in the conference, UCI has split its two conference matches with first-place Hawaii, third-place Pepperdine and fourth-place USC.
The victory over the No. 13-ranked Matadors clinched a top-four finish and a guaranteed home match in the quarterfinals of the MPSF Tournament that begins April 25. With four regular-season conference matches remaining, UCI (21-4, 15-3 in the MPSF) is one match behind Hawaii (21-3, 16-2) and one match ahead of Pepperdine (19-4, 14-4).
UCI closes out at home against Long Beach State (Friday), at UC Santa Barbara and UCLA (April 8 and 10, respectively) and at home against last-place UC San Diego (April 18).
Hawaii plays host to Stanford twice this week and closes out with a pair at BYU.
The regular-season conference champion plays host to the MPSF semifinals and final, April 30 and May 1.
“The big thing for us is, we’ve gained the confidence to know that we can beat anybody in the country and that’s huge,” UCI Coach David Kniffin said. “Now, it’s about how good can we get from now until the playoffs?”
The ‘Eaters were plenty good enough to earn their 12th sweep of the season Wednesday, controlling CSUN (9-15, 6-12), in every facet.
UCI hit .378 as a team, 119 points better than the visitors, had a 34-24 advantage in digs, a 5-4 edge in team blocks and had all five of the match’s aces.
Senior opposite Zack La Cavera had a match-best 14 kills to pace the winners, hitting .393 in the process.
Sophomore outside hitter Tamir Hershko hit .471 with nine kills and shared the team lead with three block assists.
Senior setter Roberto Frazzoni, making just his second start of the season, had 31 assists, seven digs and one ace, while senior outside hitter Travis Woloson had eight kills and six digs.
Senior All-American libero Michael Brinkley collected a match-best 13 digs to help the Anteaters cruise.
“Tonight was a tricky one, playing a team in the bottom half of the conference,” Kniffin said. “We know, in this conference, that doesn’t necessarily indicate a team that can’t play at a high level, but just a team that has struggled with consistency. I think tonight we saw an inconsistent team against a consistent team and that ultimately is what won out.”
Junior middle blocker Jason Agopian hit .455 with seven kills and added three block assists and UCI took advantage of 14 service errors, including errant serves to end the first two sets.
“Roberto gives us a different look,” Kniffin said. “It’s almost like having an extra libero in the back row.”
Frazzoni, who stepped in for Michael Saeta to make his first start on Saturday at BYU, said he is happy to have the chance to contribute.
“I was just waiting for my opportunity,” Frazzoni said. “I really wasn’t expecting it, because [Saeta] has been having a good season. But when it happened, I took advantage of it. I like to compete, so getting the chance to play in matches is pretty good.”