Speraw out, but UCI wins

IRVINE — When the UC Irvine men’s volleyball team stepped on the court Wednesday, something shiny was missing.

Not just the NCAA championship won last season.

But Coach John Speraw’s bald head.

On a night in which the Anteaters opened the season and Speraw was one win away from collecting No. 100, the sixth-year coach was bound for an exotic location.

Forget about the significance of each, or that the match pinned the NCAA champ against the NAIA champ.

The man filling in for Speraw looked more like a player in street clothes out with an injury than a coach.

But with a smile assistant coach David Kniffin explained Speraw’s whereabouts after UCI swept Cal Baptist, 30-21, 30-21, 30-21 at Crawford Court.

“He’s probably at the airport on his way to Puerto Rico with the [U.S.] national team,” said Kniffin, who along with assistant Mark Presho did a solid job filling in for Speraw. “They’ve got one of their last opportunities to qualify for the [2008 Summer] Olympics [in Beijing]. They [sort of] got to win.”

So No. 100 can wait.

Speraw, who is 99-57, is slated to miss the Anteaters’ first six matches of the season. He’s an assistant coach on the national team, which will compete at the NORCECA Continental Olympic Qualification Championship in Caguas Sunday through Jan. 11.

Not a problem if you ask Taylor Wilson, one of three returning starters. On a team with three redshirt freshmen starting, having the 27-year-old Kniffin around helped take the pressure off the young studs.

Even Wilson, a junior, who is no longer a role player, but one of the hitters UCI will count on this year with four All-Americans graduating off the championship team.

The 6-foot-7 Wilson led the Anteaters with 12 kills, seven digs and four blocks assists. Second in kills was freshman outside hitter Cory Yoder with 11. Third was freshman hitter Jordan DuFault with nine. DuFault also fired five service aces, tying him for fifth all-time at UCI.

The man responsible for setting up numerous blasts was freshman Anthony Spittle. He recorded 35 assists in his debut.

“I think I definitely played a little more relaxed [because Speraw] wasn’t here, because I’m always trying to impress him,” Wilson said. “With Kniffin, he’s a little younger and he understands us a little more.

“We lost a lot of experience, but we have a lot of talent. We got a lot of young fresh talent that not a lot of people know about and that a lot of people will learn about soon enough.”

Yoder, DuFault and Spittle, part of a recruiting class ranked second in the nation by Volleyball Magazine, made their presence felt. To Wilson the trio shook off the nerves hampering it during an exhibition match in which the University of Alberta swept UCI before the New Year.

Maybe a second go-around inside Crawford Court this week contributed in the turnaround. The gym is more suited for a high school program than college. But Yoder likes the intimacy.

From the start he hammered away, recording four kills in Game 1. The only other Anteater with as many kills at that point was senior Aaron Harrell. The middle blocker also dropped back-to-back aces in the opening game, allowing UCI to close out the game on a 12-5 run and give UCI the momentum.

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at [email protected].