UCI gets Hawaii at home

A UC Irvine men’s volleyball team hoping to add to the program’s emerging tradition will meet a Hawaii squad hoping to cling to some of its already ample history in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament quarterfinal tonight at 7 at Crawford Court.

No. 3-ranked UCI (25-4), the No. 3 seed in the eight-team tournament, will need to at least reach the April 28 final to have a chance to return to the four-team NCAA Championship, May 3-5 at Ohio State.

But Anteaters Coach John Speraw said the No.9-ranked Warriors, the No. 6 MPSF seed, bear little resemblance to the unit UCI swept Jan. 12 and Jan. 13 at the Bren Events Center.

“[The Warriors, who have won 10 straight] are hot, they are playing great and they have nothing to lose,” Speraw said. “They’re coming in here to see if they can restart their season.”

Hawaii opened its season on its first trip to Irvine this year, when UCI, then ranked No. 1, posted wins of 30-28, 30-26, 30-21 and 30-20, 30-22, 30-27 to improve to 6-0, on its way to a 9-0 start.

The losses spurred a 2-9 start for the Warriors, who have used a return to health and a lineup adjustment to turn things around under Coach Mike Wilton.

“We have so much respect for how [the Warriors] have been able to keep it together this year,” Speraw said. “They didn’t fall apart when they could have.”

Lauri Hakala, who was playing out of position at outside hitter in the two teams’ first meeting, has shifted to his more familiar opposite spot, Speraw said. Hakala, a 6-foot-2 senior, leads the Warriors with 345 kills.

The Anteaters are led by seniors David Smith, Jayson Jablonsky, Matt Webber and Brian Thornton, and also feature junior Aaron Harrell and sophomore Brent Asuka.

Smith, a 6-7 middle blocker who leads the MPSF with a .573 hitting percentage, was named first-team All-MPSF this week.

Jabolnsky, the MPSF and National Player of the Year last season, joined fellow outside hitter Webber on the All-MPSF second team.

Thornton, the team’s setter, Harrell, a middle blocker, and Asuka, the libero, were third-team all-conference honorees.

Tonight’s winner advances to meet the winner of the quarterfinal pitting No. 2-ranked BYU (22-5) against visiting Cal State Northridge (18-14).

The MPSF Tournament winner earns an automatic berth to the final four. BYU and UCI are the frontrunners for the lone at-large berth to the Final Four, but BYU finished ahead of UCI in the regular-season conference standings and lost fewer games in the two teams’ split, Feb. 23-24, in Provo.