Champs honored

Once more with perspective.

UC Irvine’s second men’s volleyball national championship in three seasons was still resonating 11 days after the title match victory over USC in Provo, Utah, as an estimated 3,000 students and supporters gathered to honor the Anteaters on campus Wednesday.

Coach John Speraw said adding another title to the program’s first NCAA crown in 2007 represents a landmark for his program.

“Winning national championship No. 2 is incredibly significant,” Speraw said while addressing the crowd outside the student center. “When you win your first one, that’s a very big deal. But No. 2 is significant and winning two in a short amount of time with a different core group [of players] only occurs because there is something incredibly special going on here.”

Speraw said winning a second NCAA championship puts UCI in some elite company.

“I just get a sense and a feel from other people in the volleyball community that two is big,” Speraw said. “I think people are really awe struck by what we’ve been able to achieve. There are programs that have been playing volleyball now for 40-plus years and have not won one, or maybe have won only one.

“And now, we’ve been competing for less than half that time, and we’ve put a program together in the last seven years [since Speraw’s arrival] that has won two. We’re on a list now of programs that have won multiple championships with UCLA, Pepperdine, USC, Penn State and BYU. And that is an elite list of volleyball programs. I think we have a great chance of moving up that list some more in the future and I’m excited about that.”

Speraw, who won NCAA titles as a player and assistant coach at UCLA, said having some time to digest winning the second title allowed him to further appreciate this group of players.

“That has to be one of the best teams, without any glaring holes, that has played the game of volleyball,” Speraw said. “There are teams out there with better players, teams that may have these studs. But most teams have some sort of hole; some place on the court that other teams are trying to attack.

“So, the kind of balance that we had is incredibly rare. And it sneaked up on me,” he continued. “Maybe I didn’t appreciate it fully until it was all over, what a special experience looking at that group of athletes was.”

The Anteaters (27-5) and regular-season champions of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, were picked to finish fifth in the conference in a preseason coaches’ poll. UCI began the season ranked No. 6 nationally, before eventually claiming the No. 1 spot.

“I don’t think there were any expectations from Day 1, until the very last ball dropped,” Speraw said. “We were preseason No. 6 and, even at the end, I think people expected USC to probably beat us.

“I think for us to achieve what we achieved this year was spectacular. I’m thrilled for the guys. I think it was a tremendous achievement and they earned it. They earned the right to come out here and receive this kind of support.”

UC Irvine Men’s Volleyball All-Americans

Ryan Ammerman: The 6-foot-9 senior setter was the Most Valuable Player of the Final Four.

Carson Clark: The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation’s top freshman is a breakout outside hitter

Jordan DuFault: A sophomore outside hitter, he was the most consistent player in the lineup

Kevin Wynne: The sophomore middle blocker helped UCI lead the nation in blocking