‘Eaters believe, achieve

IRVINE — There’s a fine line between prolonged belief and denial.

But, even with ample evidence to the contrary during an 8-10 start that was underwhelming, if not an underachievement, UC Irvine women’s volleyball players simply refused to believe that the elements necessary to produce the program’s biggest victory in at least two seasons would continue to elude them.

That belief, both long-term and incremental, was on display Thursday, as the host Anteaters upset No. 24-ranked Big West Conference rival Long Beach State, 20-25, 25-12, 25-23, 25-21, before an energetic crowd at Crawford Court.

“A lot of people and especially our players, felt like we haven’t played as well as we can this season,” said UCI senior libero Devon Sutherland, who came in 0-6 career against Long Beach State (14-4, 4-2 in conference). “We knew it was going to happen sometime and there wasn’t a better match than tonight against Long Beach. For us three seniors, it was a nice little win for us.”

One of those seniors is Lauren Kellerman, an outside hitter who produced a match-high 21 kills and also led the winners with 13 digs.

“I don’t think we ever didn’t believe,” Kellerman said. “We always believed we could do it. Tonight, it just all clicked and it all worked.”

Still, UCI Coach Charlie Brande said, his team needed some reassurance to bolster that belief.

“As a coach, you can talk about it and you know it’s doable,” Brande said. “But, sometimes, [the players] have to go out and do a little bit of it to really believe. And that’s kind of what happened,. We started making some good plays and some scramble plays ... Once we won the second game, [the players] really started believing in our game plan and they believed in themselves.”

The plan, Kellerman, Sutherland and sophomore Kari Pestolesi (16 kills, 12 digs and five aces) said, was to keep the 49ers off balance and out of their comfort zone.

“We knew what they were doing before they did,” Pestolesi said. “We were really excited to play. Once we got all the nerves out, we were good to go.”

The nerves helped Long Beach control the opening set. But UCI, using its prescribed variety of roll shots, cross-court cut shots, tips, dumps and even a few jousts to go with the standard power kills from Pestolesi and Kellerman, seized the momentum with a commanding second-set victory.

UCI saw a 20-16 lead slip to 23-22 and 24-23, but it closed out the third set.

“That was the match,” Brande said of pushing through in Game 3, gaining the final two points on kills by senior opposite Shannan Homan and Kellerman.

The hosts were also able to finish in the fourth set, after Long Beach pared a 16-7 deficit to within 20-19.

The win helped UCI improve to 4-2 in conference and join the 49ers in a tie for third, behind Pacific and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (both 5-1).

It may do even more than that.

“This is huge for our confidence,” Pestolesi said. “Hopefully, it can carry over to our match Saturday at Cal Poly.”

Junior setter Taryn Robertson had 43 assists and six kills, while junior Alexandra Filkins had a career-high five block assists and five kills.

Homan and sophomore Riley Cropper added five kills apiece and Sutherland finished with 11 digs.

BARRY FAULKNER may be reached at (714) 966-4615 or at barry.faulkner@latimes.com.