Run-down UCI falls to BYU

IRVINE — UC Irvine men’s volleyball coach John Speraw hoped his team’s impressive five-game battle in a losing effort against No. 1-ranked BYU Friday night would help the Anteaters regroup enough to upset the Cougars Saturday at the Bren Events Center.

Instead, it had the opposite effect.

Friday’s loss, however, affected the UCI opposite position in a deleterious way Speraw had anticipated all along.

The result was a 28-30, 30-22, 30-24, 30-27 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation victory for the visitors Saturday.

“My concern before the weekend even started was how we were going to get some production out of the opposite position on Night 2,” Speraw said. “I was concerned, because Jon [Steller, who started Friday in place of Taylor Wilson, who had been slowed by an ankle injury] has the history of knee trouble. He hadn’t played back-to-back matches and he never had a five-gamer go as long as it did [Friday, when BYU prevailed, 28-26, in the deciding game].

“[Steller] wasn’t very good [five kills and six errors in 29 total attacks for a negative .034 hitting percentage] and I pretty much tried everybody I had in the lineup.”

Speraw initially went to Wilson, who had three kills and four errors in 11 total attacks [a negative .091 hitting percentage]. He was still clearly limited by his ailing left ankle.

Then Speraw tried something new.

“Actually, I don’t know if we’ve ever played [sophomore Cole Reinholm] at opposite,” Speraw said. “But we decided we were down and it wasn’t looking good, and I wanted to see if he could do it. It was almost like a scrimmage to see what we could learn. And he did a nice job. He was able to spark us and give us a little push there at the end.”

Reinholm, a left-hander who normally plays outside hitter, finished with nine kills and hit .227, but it wasn’t nearly enough against a more experienced BYU squad that improved to 11-0, 6-0 in the MPSF.

Offense was the problem, Speraw said, after his No. 6-ranked team (8-8, 5-6), hit a combined .106, while the Cougars finished with a .242 hitting percentage.

BYU also had more digs (52 to 44), more ace serves (six to three) and a better service receive percentage (.968 to .941).

UCI, which posted a season-high in block assists with 39, managed to win the blocking battle with 23.5 team blocks, to the Cougars’ 21.

“I thought we were OK on the block,” said Speraw, whose team posted eight total blocks to win Game 1 Saturday. “In general, we did a better job of executing defensively. I thought we were on some of their tendencies a little bit more. We were doing the right thing tactically in the middle of the court. Certainly they’re a physical team and they’re going to get their kills, no matter what we do. I just didn’t think we passed, set or hit very well. I mean you look at the offensive numbers and they’re just terrible. [BYU] is good defensive team, but they’re not bigger blockers than Pepperdine and they’re not that much bigger than USC [both teams UCI has defeated twice this season]. Certainly we’ve hit for a much higher percentage against teams that have had as big of a block. We just didn’t have it this weekend, offensively.”

Senior middle blocker Aaron Harrell shared team-high honors with 12 kills and added one block and eight block assists, while finishing with a .455 hitting percentage to lead the reigning NCAA champions.

UCI freshman middle blocker Kevin Wynne had six kills and hit .417. He also had 10 block assists and one block to round out a solid weekend.

UCI freshman Cory Yoder also had 12 kills, but hit just .083.

Freshmen Jordan DuFault (one kill and three errors in five attempts) and Kevin Carroll (one kill and four errors in 10 tries) hit negative .400 and negative .300, respectively, for UCI.

Senior setter Ryan Ammerman had 20 assists and six block assists, but was replaced by freshman Anthony Spittle, who finished with 23 assists.

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