UCI stuns Matadors

IRVINE — UC Irvine Coach John Speraw has treated his players like a hip-hop DJ does records at a club.

He’s been mixing up the men’s volleyball lineup. It has been inconsistent as the season.

There have been many scratches.

One almost happened after Game 1 against No. 2-ranked Cal State Northridge Tuesday night at Bren Events Center. Jordan DuFault had a negative hitting percentage and standing near the bench seemed more appropriate than on the court in the next game.

“I was thinking about making a move right there,” Speraw said. “Well, I just decided, you know, I’ve been making a lot of moves. I was going to let him hang in there for a little while longer.”

Speraw kept playing DuFault and the outside hitter delivered music to his coach’s ears. DuFault hit booming shots, balls smacked off his wrists, and then came those block assists.

The freshmen contributed in so many ways as the No. 9 Anteaters pulled off a 28-30, 30-24, 42-40, 30-18 upset in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match, ending the Matadors’ 14-match winning streak.

DuFault finished with 16 kills and 12 digs and seven block assists, the last two were career-highs. It was a surprising night for him and the Anteaters, who played an exciting Game 3 that featured 12-game point situations. It finally ended in UCI’s favor, 42-40, and went into the record books as the longest game in school history.

In the last six days, UCI (13-13, 9-10 in MPSF) has beaten the MPSF leader.

Long Beach State was atop the standings last week. The Matadors (20-5, 15-4) came into this week in first place and with a school-record winning streak. This despite being without standout middle blocker Cody Loe, who Coach Jeff Campbell said has missed the last four matches due to breaking team rules.

It was another big victory for the Anteaters. But they sandwiched a disappointing five-game loss in between at UC San Diego, which is near the MSPF cellar. The Anteaters aren’t so far ahead.

UCI finds itself near the bottom in regards to the top eight teams advancing to the MPSF Tournament, the qualifier to the NCAA Championships, which will be at UCI for the first time.

The defending MPSF and NCAA champions don’t have a berth locked up yet into the MPSF Tournament. Three regular-season matches remain, all on the road, starting with UC Santa Barbara Saturday. Being away is the only set thing about the Anteaters future, the lineup, not so much to junior opposite Jon Steller. But that’s OK to him.

“A lot of guys on our team have a lot of experience now because almost everybody has played in just as many games [as everyone else],” said Steller, one of the few usual starters. “Against some of these teams that have six, seven guys, we have 13 right now that can all step in and play at any given time.”

Speraw was thinking of making some drastic moves after the first game. Ten times he saw his team commit service errors. Four of those belonged to Steller. He shaped up quickly, finishing with three service errors the rest of the way.

Steller began to shine with the opportunities and staying patient after a rough start. Anthony Spittle, who finished with 55 assists, set him up several times. Steller recorded a match-high 27 kills to go with a career-high seven block assists.

“As you can see any team can beat any team on any given night,” Steller said.

It’s become a pattern like Speraw shuffling the lineup. Speraw isn’t sure who’s going to play next, whether it’s inserting outside hitter Kevin Carroll like he did while UCI trailed in Game 3, because of his defense.

Whoever plays well sounds good to Speraw.

“All these outside hitters are so different,” Speraw said. “It’s probably confusing for them as to why I make some of those moves I made. I just want to keep playing better volleyball, if that happens to get us in the playoffs, great.”

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at david.carrillo@latimes.com.