Men’s Volleyball: UCI handles Waves in MPSF final
It’s becoming more and more difficult for the UC Irvine men’s volleyball program to accomplish a first.
But it checked another one off the list on Friday by defeating Pepperdine, 25-23, 21-25, 25-23, 25-23, to win the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament title in front of 2,408 at the Bren Events Center.
It was the Anteaters’ third MPSF Tournament crown, but the first in three tries on its home floor. As the MPSF regular-season and tournament champion, No. 2-ranked UCI (28-4) is an overwhelming favorite to receive one of the top two seeds and the corresponding bye into the semifinals at the six-team NCAA Championships that begin Tuesday at Stanford University.
UCI, which will be competing for its fifth NCAA title in the last nine seasons, rode senior opposite Zack La Cavera’s career-high 26 kills to pull away from the No. 5-ranked Waves (24-6), whom most observers believe were playing for their postseason lives.
Hawaii, which lost to the Waves in the semifinals, but won two of three this season against the preseason MPSF favorite, is expected to earn one of two at-large NCAA bids. The other should go to No. 1-ranked Lewis, which lost to defending NCAA champion Loyola of Chicago in its conference tournament title match Friday.
The NCAA bracket will be announced Saturday at 10 a.m. on NCAA.com.
But UCI secured the conference’s lone guaranteed NCAA berth by displaying its typical resilience and poise, as well as a bit of what Coach David Kniffin called some on-court improvisation.
“Pepperdine is such a talented team that is extremely well-coached and disciplined,” Kniffin said. “If we tried to meet them on that level, we may win some and we may lose some. So, we needed to be a little more unconventional in terms of how we score points. A couple plays, scramble plays and attacking, whether it was a wipe off the block or being aggressive on a swing with a set coming from 30 feet off the net, where maybe somebody else could [take a roll shot], we needed to go for it. To me, that’s the competitive differentiator in this whole match.”
Most would argue, however, that La Cavera, the MPSF Player of the Year, was the difference. The 6-foot-4 veteran, who like two-time All-American libero Michael Brinkley played a role in UCI’s NCAA championships in 2012 and 2013, thundered away to record eight kills in the first game. He then added five, six and seven kills in successive games. He hit .429 with just five errors on 47 swings, just less than 24 hours after netting 25 kills on 52 swings in a draining five-set semifinal win over USC.
“From the very first swing he took, Zack demonstrated that he was going to be great for us and he really didn’t let that go the whole [match],” Kniffin said. “He played like the MPSF Player of the Year and he played like the tournament champion.”
Brinkley and sophomore middle blocker Andrew Benz (eight kills, a .583 hitting percentage, and a team-best five block assists) echoed their coach’s praise of La Cavera, who helped UCI hit .347 as a team including .421 in the fourth set.
“Zach is amazing,” said Brinkley, who had six digs and four assists. “When we are down, he’s the guy we look to.”
Added Benz: “Zach is a tremendous leader and definitely our go-to-guy when we are in trouble.”
UCI was in trouble on many occasions, particularly in the first three sets. The first set featured 14 tie scores and UCI, which has won 10 in a row and 19 of its last 20, squandered a 16-11 lead and trailed, 22-20.
But an ace by freshman serving substitute Reid Dominguez drew UCI even at 22-22 and a kill from La Cavera, then two from sophomore outside hitter Tamir Hershko (14 kills at a .370 clip), gave UCI the opening-game victory.
After Pepperdine rallied to win the second set, the Waves built leads of 13-8 and 17-13 in Game 3. But an ace by sophomore setter Michael Saeta gave UCI its first lead of the set at 23-22, and a combination block by Hershko and junior middle blocker Jason Agopian created set point. A pair of missed serves followed and UCI escaped with a 2-1 lead in games.
“I thought we let Game 3 kind of slip away,’ Pepperdine Coach Marv Dunphy said. “But part of that is a credit to UC Irvine. And I thought that not just this match, or this tournament but for the year, that La Cavera played really well. And tonight was no exception.”
UCI senior outside hitter Travis Woloson had a career-high 13 digs and added three block assists to help offset his struggles at the net. Woloson had three kills and five errors in 16 swings for a negative .125 percentage.
Agopian chipped in eight kills (.312) and one block assist, while Saeta and senior Roberto Frazzoni, who shared time, both finished with 26 assists.
Pepperdine libero Brennan Anderson, a senior out of Corona del Mar High, had four digs for the Waves.