‘Eaters take out No. 1

IRVINE ? When the top two college men’s volleyball teams in the country meet, a highly competitive match is expected.

Twenty-one lead changes after No. 1 Brigham Young and No. 2 UC Irvine took the court, the Anteaters outlasted the Cougars, 30-24, 28-30, 27-30, 36-34, 15-13, Friday night.

A portion of the season-high 2,817 fans in attendance stormed the court at the Bren Events Center.

It was a sight foreign to junior Matt Webber, who led the Anteaters (14-3, 12-2 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) with 25 kills. And he wasn’t talking about defeating BYU (18-3, 11-2) for the first time.

“That was the first time the crowd stormed the court,” Webber said of the scene after David Smith tipped home the match-winning kill.

It was difficult to imagine only minutes earlier as UCI trailed, 10-6, in the fifth game with BYU on a 6-1 run. With digs from Brent Asuka and a solo block and kill from Webber, UCI cut the lead to 11-10 and Jayson Jablonsky stepped behind the back line to serve.

“I just wanted to get it in and let our blockers do their thing,” said Jablonsky, with an ace the furthest from his mind.

But that’s what came next ? two of them, in fact ? and UCI would not trail again.

“After the timeout and Jablonsky got that ace,” Webber said. “There was no looking back.”

Jablonsky added 17 kills and Paul Spittle had 16 for UCI. Brian Thornton had 62 assists. The Anteaters overcame 32 kills from BYU’s Yosleyder Cala and ran their winning streak to 12, the longest in the nation and school history.

“The battle was big,” UCI Coach John Speraw said. “For us to just battle like that, it wasn’t important for us to win or lose. I knew we would learn a lot from this.”

One thing the Anteaters know is the Cougars will come out tonight in Crawford Court looking to avoid their first two-game losing streak of the season.

“Crawford is our home turf,” Webber said of the gym where UCI plays the majority of their home matches. “They’ll come out pretty [upset]. They’ll be fired up. We want to win it really bad.”

UCI overcame two match points for BYU in game four.dpt.11-ucivball-1-dz-CPhotoInfo201OROVE20060311ivyahgknDOUGLAS ZIMMERMAN / DAILY PILOT(LA)UC Irvine’s Jayson Jablonsky (11) spikes over the block of BYU’s Ivan Perez (8) and Russell Holmes (11) during Friday’s match.