Anteaters exact revenge

Patrick Laverty

Having already surrendered a two-games-to-none lead to USC earlier

this year, UC Irvine’s men’s volleyball team wasn’t about to let it

happen again.

The Trojans fought off six Anteater match points in the third game

and extended the match to a fifth game, but UC Irvine prevailed, 3-2,

when a Trojan dig attempt on Jimmy Pelzel’s kill went wide. The

Anteaters finished off USC, 30-27, 30-23, 33-35, 26-30, 15-13 in

Mountain Pacific Sports Federation action.

It was a happier ending for UC Irvine (5-5, 2-3 in the MPSF) than

in USC’s season opener, when the Anteaters also held a 2-0 lead, but

lost to the Trojans (1-7, 0-5) in five games during the UC Santa

Barbara tournament.

The victory puts the Anteaters back in the win column after three

straight MPSF losses.

“More than that, one of the big keys was getting them back after

the Santa Barbara tournament,” said Pelzel, who led Irvine with 21

kills. “That one was less important because it wasn’t a league game,

but I think this kind of gets the monkey off our back.”

It also ends the month of January on a high note for the No. 9

Anteaters.

“I think it was really important for us,” UCI Coach John Speraw

said. “We’ve had a couple of rough matches. Really, we’ve had a rough

January. It would have been really easy to get down on ourselves.”

Despite its seventh consecutive loss, USC is attempting to keep

its hopes high and that includes Newport Harbor High grad Blake

Tippett and Corona de Mar High product Evan Burden.

Tippett played the entire match at outside hitter and finished

with 16 kills and seven digs. Burden played the final four games at

libero and chipped in with six digs.

“I’m not that mad,” Tippett said. “We began to play much better

despite the errors and mistakes. It showed a lot of heart not giving

up.”

After the Anteaters won the first two games, they took an early

3-0 lead in the third game. USC never held more than a two-point

advantage in the game, but they fought off six match points by UCI.

The Trojans finally captured their first game after a back-row

violation on the Anteaters and a kill by 6-foot-10 junior Chris

McNiff.

The Trojans then forced a fifth game with a 30-26 victory in the

fourth, relying heavily on 6-2 Brazilian Joao Grangerio, who finished

with 20 kills, four service aces and 12 digs.

“In rally scoring, teams down 0-2 really seem to loosen up,”

Speraw said. “They can swing away and give it a rip on their serves.”

The teams traded points throughout the final game, with the

largest lead coming when UCI reeled off four straight points to take

an 11-8 lead.

The Trojans came back to tie the score, 12-12, but UCI freshman

David Smith came up with a big block against Grangerio, Smith’s third

block attempt of the rally, to return the Anteaters to the lead.

Smith’s block was one of 21 for UCI on the night, as the Anteaters

dominated play at the net. Smith combined with 6-5 freshman Matt

Webber, 6-4 senior B.J. Fell and 6-7 senior Kyle Weichert to form an

imposing front line.

“In general, I think we had our best night at the net,” Speraw

said. “I think our blocking is really coming around.”

The Trojans came back to tie the score in the fifth game, 13-13,

on a kill by a fired-up Grangerio.

But Grangerio’s serve went long on the next point, giving UCI its

seventh match point of the night and Pelzel finished off the Trojans.

“We started to realize, this is it,” Pelzel said. “We had to suck

it up.”

Weichert finished with 15 kills in 21 attempts for UCI. Webber

added 14 kills, Fell had 11 and Smith chipped in with seven. Freshman

setter Brett Reid had 50 assists.