Men’s Volleyball Preview: UCI faces tough road
Entering his fourth season as UC Irvine men’s volleyball coach, David Kniffin has been the players’ leader, mentor, role model, friend and adviser. But with the 2016 Anteaters, he said he has also been, to a small degree, a hazing victim.
“These players sure act like they want to work hard, and every time I throw a challenge at them, they take it and run with a little smile,” Kniffin said of a team that returns five starters from last season’s Mountain Pacific Sports Federation regular-season and tournament champions, who are ranked No. 2 in the preseason poll. “I almost feel like I’m being taunted by them sometimes. I’ll throw something at them that I think feels ridiculous in terms of effort, whether its conditioning, or a drill that’s just not possible. And they give me a look as if to say ‘Is that all you’ve got?’”
The same question is not appropriate when it comes to the Anteaters’ daunting schedule, which does not include a single nonconference home match and features a who’s-who of the nation’s elite.
“I actually think I might have overdone it a little,” Kniffin said of a schedule that includes a nine-day road trip in March and all 15 members of the national preseason top 15. “I was a little aggressive with the schedule, because I know the characteristics of this team and I think [the players] want to be tested. We will play and grind ourselves down and we’ll see what’s left [for the postseason]. We have an opportunity to play all the teams that we think have a legitimate shot of being in the [NCAA Tournament] field of six this year and that’s where we want to be. We choose to play a tough schedule, because we feel a tough schedule is what we need.”
UCI, which opens with George Mason on Friday at the BYU Tournament, will once again be a supreme challenge for any opponent this season. Despite losing Zack La Cavera, an opposite who was MPSF Player of the Year and a first-team All-American, as well as three-time All-American libero Michael Brinkley, the ‘Eaters have talent, depth and experience.
Tamir Hershko, a 6-foot-6 junior outside hitter, and 6-7 senior middle blocker Jason Agopian were first- and second-team All-Americans, respectively, last season, when UCI went 28-5 and was upset by eventual NCAA repeat champion Loyola of Chicago in the NCAA semifinals.
Additional returning starters include junior setter Michael Saeta, junior middle blocker Andrew Benz, and enigmatic 6-9 senior outside hitter Kyle Russell.
Russell, sidelined for most of last season by off-court issues, has national-team potential, though he has yet to show consistent productivity as an Anteater. His booming, diving jump serve is among the best in the country.
“His ceiling is so high, it’s as if he has always been reaching to get there and never quite does,” Kniffin said. “That’s a hard load for a talented athlete to carry. But I expect Andrew to have a great season. This is his time to demonstrate on a consistent basis what he can do. And I think he finally has the maturity to do it.”
Hershko, who trained with the Israeli national team in the offseason, had a .348 hitting percentage last season and, along with the physically dynamic Russell, is expected to pick up the slack left by La Cavera, an opposite who led the MPSF in kills (468), points (565), aces (44) as the go-to hitter a year ago.
“Some guys will have to carry more of a load,” Kniffin said of this year’s group, which will aim to find similar emergence from its defense, without the supreme skills and leadership provided by Brinkley, a four-year starter who ranks No. 2 on the school’s all-time digs list (1,099).
Karl Apfelbach, a redshirt freshman out of Wisconsin, is expected to step in at opposite, while sophomore Dillon Hoffman and freshman David Parker are battling for the starting nod at libero.
“We have a great tradition of lefty opposites in this program, with [All-Americans] Matt Webber, Jon Stellar, Carson Clark and Zack La Cavera,” Kniffin said. “And here comes Apfelbach, a 6-8 lefty from the Midwest.”
Marty Ross, a 6-10 senior who transferred before last season when Pacific dropped its program, adds depth in the middle, while 6-5 sophomore Reid Dominguez, as well as 6-4 juniors Thomas Hodges (another Pacific castoff) and Phillip Friedman, are capable of contributing as pin hitters, Kniffin said.
Ross and Russell shared the team lead with eight kills in an exhibition sweep of Concordia on Wednesday, a match in which Kniffin used 13 players. Liberal substitutions, however, will not be a recurring trend.
“The matches we have now, we’ll need to bring our A game,” Kniffin said. “I like that. If you’re playing your reserves now, you are playing them tactically, as opposed to just trying to get them court time.”
Dante Chakravorti, a 6-4 freshman out of a Chicago suburb, is the backup setter, while French import Aaron Koubi, a sophomore, may also factor in at libero.
UCI gets a rematch with Loyola on Saturday at BYU, then opens MPSF play at home against UCLA, guided by former UCI head man John Speraw, on Jan. 15.
BYU, top-ranked in the preseason, has back-to-back dates at the Bren Events Center on Jan 29-30.
