‘Eaters falter in closing

IRVINE — About the only numbers that held up Friday night were the rankings.

For, despite bettering top-ranked USC in virtually every statistical category, the No. 3-ranked UC Irvine men’s volleyball team absorbed a 19-30, 21-30, 30-17, 30-28, 15-12 loss in a front of 2,648 at the Bren Events Center.

The latest classic between the two powerhouse Mountain Pacific Sports Federation programs, who produced a five-game battle won by UCI in last season’s NCAA final, came down to experience.

“The national championship match was a classic and obviously this one is too,” said USC Coach Bill Ferguson, whom, UCI Coach John Speraw credited with making the necessary adjustments to pull his team out of a severe opening funk.

“I thought we came out and did exactly what we needed to do early,” said Speraw, whose team thumped the Trojans (4-1, 2-0 in the MPSF) badly in the first two sets. “And then [the Trojans] changed and we didn’t change.”

USC was hitting .078 after the first two games, while UCI (4-2, 1-1) had posted a .393 hitting percentage.

UCI, led by junior outside hitter Jordan DuFault’s career-high 30 kills, wound up hitting .345 to USC’s .235.

UCI won the blocking battle (14 team blocks to four), had more digs (44-43) and assists (70-65), while breaking even in aces (seven apiece).

But it was little solace for the defending national champions, who lost for only the second time in their last 13 meetings with USC.

“We need to be a more adaptable team,” Speraw said. “We didn’t play smart and I always want my teams to play smart. When we play smart, we beat that team, at least the way we were playing tonight.

“But, overall, I’m encouraged. That was the No. 1 team in America and they should be. They return everybody [losing only their starting libero from last year’s squad], and we obviously lost a lot of points because we have some new people on the floor.”

DuFault and fellow returning All-American Carson Clark, a sophomore opposite, held up for the hosts. DuFault hit .431 and Clark hit .333 with 22 kills, while adding three of the ’Eaters’ seven aces.

Senior Bryan Simmons, who sparkled in the NCAA title match, was once again a USC foil. He had nine block assists and two solo blocks, while also producing four kills and five set assists.

Sophomore Kevin Carroll (13 kills and 11 digs), senior libero Kevin Welch (11 digs) and junior setter Jeff Schmitz (64 assists) also helped UCI produce the better statistics.

USC standouts Murphy Troy and Tony Ciarelli struggled early and Troy, a national player of the year candidate, finished with 15 kills and a paltry .119 hitting percentage.

But Ciarelli, whose work hitting from the middle of the court in the back row helped turn the tide, both coaches said, heated up as the match progressed, getting 16 of his team-high 18 kills in the final three games.

USC junior setter Riley McKibbin was also a key to the turnaround. He finished with 57 assists, won two crucial joust plays at the net (players from both teams contacting the ball simultaneously), and personified the Trojan’s resolve in the face of pressure.

“We played in front of 4,500 people at Hawaii last week and in front of 3,000-plus at [UCLA] Wednesday,” Ferguson said. “We’ve been in the pressure cooker for two weeks and our team responded well to the crowd tonight.”

Said Speraw: “The crowd was awesome. I was just sorry we didn’t give them a win. The crowd deserved a win, maybe more than we did.”