Anteaters men’s volleyball bound to play in Venezuela

Mere days after returning from Beijing, China, where as an assistant coach, John Speraw helped the United States win the men’s volleyball gold medal, Speraw will be taking his UC Irvine men’s team to Venezuela for a two-week trip, beginning today.

The Anteaters will arrive in Buenos Aires today, the first stop in a three-city tour that will include three exhibition matches, followed by a tournament. The team will return home Sept. 15.

“It gives us some extra days of training and it allows us to get some international experience,” Speraw said. “The NCAA allows you to do something like this once every four years. At Irvine, we don’t have the budget to support an event like that, but a promoter is putting together the tournament and is paying the expenses of the teams, so it allowed us to do this. I wasn’t that anxious to hop on a plane right away, but I knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for this program. We’re going to see some great competition and it will be great for team bonding.”

— Barry Faulkner