NCAA NOTEBOOK

PROVO, Utah — When senior setter Ryan Ammerman left his home near Denver to play volleyball at UC Irvine five years ago, he left one family behind, only to discover another.

In the years since, Taylor Wilson, Brent Asuka, Nick Spittle and Jon Steller became teammates, some even roommates. And all became lifelong friends.

So while Ammerman was thrilled and gratified that many of his family — including 5-year-old brother Sebastian, who was born with Down syndrome and has battled Leukemia — were there to watch him lead UCI to the NCAA title Saturday, he wanted to acknowledge both “families.”

“I love my family, I love my brother [Sebastian, who had never before watched him play in person] and I’m so happy they were here to see it,” Ammerman said of the group of relatives proudly known as “Ammo Nation.”

“But tonight was about my volleyball family. I so wanted to win it for those guys.”

Ammerman became visibly emotional when asked about his thoughts before the match, a five-game win over USC before 3,015 at BYU’s Smith Fieldhouse.

“I just wanted to win and that was it,” said the 6-foot-9 first-team All-American, who had 55 assists, 12 block assists, six kills and five digs to earn Most Outstanding Player honors at the Final Four. “That’s all I could think about. I wasn’t thinking about my family, except for these guys [Spittle and Wilson] to my left, and guys who are not here [in the media room], because we’ve become such a close family. I just wanted to win it for them.”

Ammerman has always wanted the kind of season he finally enjoyed this year. After redshirting and waiting his turn his first three years at UCI, he was given and, at points lost, the starting job as a junior in 2008.

“It’s not easy to be a first-year setter in [the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation], and he struggled,” UCI Coach John Speraw said. “He struggled with it mentally, because he wasn’t as successful as he’d hoped and I was yanking him in and out [of the lineup]. Boy, he really had a tough [junior] year.

“But for him to come back this year and be that guy, and to learn how to manage his emotions and continue to improve, has just been the single greatest one-year improvement of a single player I’ve ever seen.”

Ammerman earned additional praise for his play Saturday.

“Ammo was a stud,” said USC Coach Bill Ferguson. “He was real good; real balanced … He was the man tonight and that kid is something else. Any organization, team or group that that kid associates himself [in the future] with will be better for having been with him. As good of a kid as he is, he was better than that, athletically, tonight.”

Wilson, who cashed in Ammerman sets for a team-high 21 kills, was also happy to extol the virtues of his setter and friend.

“Ammo has been absolutely huge this entire year: blocking, serving, setting, literally just absolutely doing it all. And to be able to share that experience with him is great,” Wilson said.

“Ever since he came to UCI, he wanted to play from Day One. To get an opportunity like this and to be successful, I’m sure it means a lot to him. It means a lot to me.”

SERVING UP LAUGHS

Ammerman also induced hearty laughter when assessing the play of junior middle blocker Bryan “Gene” Simmons, who came off the bench to collect seven stuff blocks and four kills in five attempts in the fourth and fifth games of the 26-30, 30-23, 26-30, 30-17, 15-12 triumph over the Trojans.

“That was gnarly,” Ammerman said. “Besides Thursday night [the semifinal win over Ohio State], he hadn’t played in, I think, two months [due to injuries, then the emergence of freshman Austin D’Amore, who led the MPSF in blocks per game].

“This whole year, it has been about team effort every single night,” Ammerman said. “If somebody is not up to what they need to be doing, someone else will step up. And, oh my goodness, did [Simmons] do that tonight. He must have had close to 10 blocks in two games. That’s absurd. But he’s a big man and he’s going to block balls.”

CREDIT TO SPERAW

Spittle was asked about the game plan and he wasted little time giving credit to his coaching staff, led by Speraw and including assistants Dave Kniffin and Mark Presho.

“All the credit belongs to [Speraw],” Spittle said. “He’s been in these situations more than anyone, as a player, a coach and as an assistant coach. He’s seen every situation possible, so you know that every judgment call he makes is the right one and we have 100% confidence in him.”

Speraw also earned praise from Ferguson for his strategic moves.

“They did a really good job of serving us out of system,” Ferguson said. “They served freshman outside hitter Tony Ciarelli short, took him out of the bic [back-row center set] route and made us three-dimensional. We had been four dimensional, so that hurt us. With only three, or two hitters available [to be set], they were able to block us pretty frequently and it showed in the stats [20.5 team blocks for UCI, to 7.5 for USC].”

Ferguson also said frequent shifts in where players started to open games, which determines the rotation and matchups for that particular game, helped the Anteaters’ cause.

“Speraw was spinning the dial a little bit, starting people in a different row to change the matchup,” Ferguson said. “We were playing a lot of cat and mouse with that throughout the match.

“In the fifth game, they had a row that they liked and we had a row that we liked. So, it was up to a couple of adjustments here and there and they got the best of us.”

MAKING IT WORK

Wilson said executing the game plan was also a key to UCI’s victory, particularly limiting the effectiveness of USC outside hitters Tony Ciarelli (a .189 hitting percentage) and Tri Bourne (.200).

“We just took their tendencies away probably better than we have on that team in a while, obviously better than the MPSF semifinal,” Wilson said. “A couple of their guys got a little hot and toward the end of the match we slowed them down. I think we just did a great job of controlling the pins [wing hitters].”

MIDDLE SHIFT

Another key strategic move was replacing 6-foot-5 D’Amore (seven block assists and five kills in nine attempts in three games) with the 6-8 Simmons.

“We weren’t getting any stuffs and [the Trojans with middles Austin Zahn and Hunter Current getting 15 and nine kills, respectively] were attacking the middle of the court,” Speraw said. “So, we wanted to go with a bigger guy.

“Actually, [Kniffin] had been chirping in my ear for the last 36 hours that that [substitution] might happen. I finally thought, ‘OK, we’ll do it. And it worked out.”