UCI breaks out broom on Waves

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IRVINE — With typically the tallest lineup in the country, the Pepperdine men’s volleyball program presents such a daunting physical challenge, it usually prevents teams from rising to the occasion in an initial meeting.

But No. 2-ranked UC Irvine, which fell in four games at Malibu on Feb. 20, stepped up in the rematch, Saturday, before a season-best home crowd of 2,587, at the Bren Events Center.

The Anteaters’ 31-29, 30-24, 30-22 thumping of the top-ranked Waves created a tie for first place in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation between the two with two regular-season matches remaining. And the ’Eaters’ first sweep of the Waves since 2003, also gives them the tiebreaker advantage, should they remain deadlocked.

So, if UCI (22-4, 17-3 in conference) can close out with wins at Stanford (Friday) and at Pacific (Saturday), it would have home-court advantage throughout the MPSF Tournament that begins April 25.

“Gosh, I can’t even believe it,” UCI Coach John Speraw said after the Anteaters posted a 16-6 advantage in team blocks and hit .352 to the Waves’ .233. “I know how good they are, so if we were going to beat them, I didn’t think it would be in three. And if we beat them in four, I knew they had a pretty good advantage in point differential [another tiebreaker criteria for deciding MPSF Tournament seeding]. I was pretty much resigned to being a No. 2 or No. 3 seed and not caring.

“Beating Stanford at their place is going to be an exceedingly difficult thing to do. But it sure would be great to win the MPSF, holy smokes.”

Blocking, serving (UCI had just nine service errors, compared to 24 the first Pepperdine match), as well as doing more to contain two-time All-American opposite Paul Carroll, who had a career-high 37 kills in the first meeting, helped UCI smoke the Waves.

“I thought we did some things well at the net blocking-wise and I thought we were much better offensively than we were the first time we played them,” said Speraw, who is now 5-10 against the Waves in seven seasons at UCI, including only one season sweep (last year when Carroll was injured and did not play in either match).

“I think that happens almost every year against Pepperdine, especially if you play them midway through the season the first time,” Speraw said. “They’re so much bigger than other teams [averaging 6-foot-7 among starters not including the libero], you have to adjust. Usually the first time you play Pepperdine, you get stuffed off the court, which is what happened [a 21-7.5 team block advantage for the Waves].

“In Game 1 of our first match at their place, they must have had eight stuff blocks. In Game 1 of this match, they had four. So I felt great we were able to halve it.”

Freshman opposite Carson Clark paced the winners with 16 kills, while sophomore outside hitter Jordan DuFault had 14 to go with a robust .480 hitting percentage.

Senior outside hitter Taylor Wilson added 10 kills, while middle blockers Kevin Wynne (seven) and Austin D’Amore (six) hit .538 and .545, respectively.

Wynne led the winners with seven block assists, while D’Amore and Wilson each had six.

Senior setter Ryan Ammerman and DuFault chipped in four block assists apiece.

“I thought [Ammerman, who had 47 assists] really set a nice match,” Speraw said. “And I thought Carson [benched early in the first Pepperdine match] had a couple moments there where he wasn’t good, but he bounced back this time, which I was glad to see.

“So, overall, I’m obviously very happy with this match. This puts us in a great position.”

UCI figures to return to the No. 1 ranking.

The 6-foot-8 Carroll finished with 19 kills, but hit just .250.

“We knew our game plan really well and our coaches had us very well-prepared,” said Ammerman, one of six seniors honored before the final regular-season home match of their career.

“It was a very fun week [that included a four-game win over No. 4-ranked USC Wednesday in front of 2,421 spectators]. The crowd was really great Wednesday and it seemed like everyone came back tonight. It would be sweet to play in front of those fans again.”

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