‘Eaters ruin Trojans’ visit

Chris Yemma

UC Irvine men’s volleyball coach John Speraw had told himself his

team wasn’t going to be good in January.

After all, it’s still extremely early in the season and the

Anteaters are a young team. And with one win in five matches,

Speraw’s prediction was starting to materialize.

But along came USC, a team with a long tradition of dominance in

numerous sports. A 30-22, 27-30, 30-25, 30-24 Mountain Pacific Sports

Federation win against the visiting Trojans Wednesday at Crawford

Court was just what UCI needed in terms of a confidence booster.

After two losses to UCLA, one to Cal Baptist and one to Pacific,

the Anteaters were staring at a 1-4 record. But the four-game win

over USC (1-5, 0-3 in the MPSF) improved the Anteaters to 2-4, 1-1.

“It’s our first league win in a long league season,” Speraw said.

“So it’s good for us to beat ‘SC. It’s always good to beat ‘SC --

they have a long tradition and they’re a very proud team.”

The Anteaters, ranked No. 12 in the federation, survived after a

second-game rally by the Trojans to stifle any momentum USC had

gained, and powered through the next two games to take the match.

The ‘Eaters also went deep in the lineup, with four players

scoring double digits in the kill category, while also withstanding a

match-high 22 kills from USC’s Blake Tippett, a Newport Harbor High

alum.

UCI’s Jon Steller and Steffin Rangel boomed shots from the outside

hitter position and finished with 14 and 12 kills, respectively,

while David Smith (10 kills) and Aaron Harrell (9) fired the quick

shots from the middle.

Sophomore Jayson Jablonsky was also shooting from the outside and

finished with 11 kills.

But in the third game, with the momentum hanging in the balance,

it was Steller who slammed home five kills and back-to-back service

aces to sway the flow of the game.

“This was a big win for sure because we hadn’t won hardly any

games yet,” Steller said. “We still want to be [playing] at a higher

level, but we’re making steps toward that.”

USC, however, was making steps backward, losing three consecutive

matches to remain winless in the MPSF.

“It’s a long season and this is only the beginning,” said Tippett,

who was an All-CIF Southern Section Division III player for Newport

Harbor in 2001.

“It’s frustrating -- these are must wins for us. When you’re at

the bottom of the conference, you can’t come out like we did

[Wednesday night],” Tippett said.

UCI went on an 11-3 run to open a 20-12 lead in game one.

The ‘Eaters outhit the Trojans, .417-.241, while USC committed

nine service errors.

UCI returns to action when it hosts No. 3 Pepperdine at 7 p.m.

Friday in the Bren Events Center.