Anteaters will seek revenge

Several members of the UC Irvine men’s volleyball team indicated before the NCAA Championship pairings were announced Sunday that a semifinal rematch with Penn State would add to the list of things going the Anteaters’ way during the postseason.

And UCI Coach John Speraw knows exactly how they feel.

No. 3-ranked UCI (27-5), which earned the program’s first Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament title with a five-game win over No. 1-ranked Pepperdine Saturday night on the Waves’ home floor, will, in fact, open the four-team NCAA Championship by taking on the Nittany Lions (22-7), Thursday at 4 p.m. at Ohio State.

It creates a rematch of a 2006 NCAA semifinal won by the host Nittany Lions in five games.

“I know that when we lost to Penn State in the NCAA final in 1994, I was pretty excited when they were in the NCAA final against us in 1995 [which the UCLA team on which Speraw was a starting middle blocker won],� Speraw said. “I can emphathize with [the sentiments of this year’s UCI players who wanted the rematch].�

The Anteaters, after all, are all about second chances these days. They have rallied for five-game wins in each of their three MPSF tournament triumphs, going 8-0 in elimination games against No. 9 Hawaii, No. 2 BYU and Pepperdine.

Pepperdine (26-2), which had its 23-match winning streak halted by UCI Saturday, retained the No. 1 seed. The Waves will face No. 4-seeded Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne (22-7) in the other semifinal Thursday.

Penn State is making its 22nd appearance in the Final Four, but has just one NCAA title (1994). Coach Mark Pavlik’s Nittany Lions defeated Saint Francis Saturday night in the final of the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. It was Penn State’s ninth straight EIVA title.

UCI defeated Penn State, 30-26, 27-30, 30-21, 30-25, in a nonconference match March 14 at UCI.

“Our guys have a ton of respect for Penn State,� Speraw said. “We realize we played a great match to beat Penn State when it was out here [in March]. We’re going to have to play at a very high level to beat them.�

Should UCI win Thursday, it would advance to Saturday’s 4 p.m. title match, also at Ohio State.

“I feel a lot better rignt now about how we’re playing than I did last year going into the Final Four,� Speraw said.

Last season, UCI won the MPSF regular-season title, but lost in the semifinals of the MPSF tournament to Long Beach State. The ‘Eaters then fell to Penn State, 32-30, 30-23, 31-33, 27-30, 15-13, in the NCAA semifinals.

BARRY FAULKNER may be reached at (714) 966-4615 or at [email protected]