‘Eaters fall in five

UNIVERSITY PARK, Penn. ? UC Irvine men’s volleyball coach John Speraw has said all along that this unprecedented season was about accumulating experiences.

But the top-seeded Anteaters came up short of adding a national championship match to their list this season, falling, 32-30, 30-23, 13-33, 27-30, 15-13, to No. 4-seeded Penn State in the semifinals of the NCAA championships at the Nittany Lions’ Rec Hall on Thursday.

The Anteaters (27-5) prolonged the experience Thursday, rallying from deficits of 10-5 and 23-23 to win the third game, staving off one match point in the process.

After winning the fourth game, the Anteaters pulled even at 13-13 ? the fourth tie of the deciding fifth game and the 54th time in the match the score was deadlocked. But after a kill by Max Holt put Penn State (21-8) on the verge of sending most of the 3,430 in attendance home with a rooting interest in Saturday’s final against UCLA, a power outage interrupted the match.

A portion of the lights that had been set on a timer clicked off at 11 p.m., putting the match in limbo for 14 minutes.

Both teams tried to keep busy during the break, which eventually ended when officials ? with the approval of both coaches ? said the match would resume, even though it appeared that none of the lights that went off had come back on.

Holt, a 6-foot-9 freshman middle, then stepped to the service line and delivered a jump serve ace to win the match.

Speraw refused to place any blame on the 14-minute delay.

“It would be easy to say [it affected us, because we shanked the last pass],” Speraw said. “But there was just as much pressure on the server, who was a freshman [after the delay], as there was on our guy who received the serve.”

Speraw praised his team’s ability to force a fifth game, but was displeased with a season-high 25 service errors, as well as Penn State’s advantage at the net.

“We haven’t had 25 service errors all season,” Speraw said. “Especially against a team, which in the past hasn’t passed the ball very well. I thought we needed to go out there and serve tough and serve consistently and we didn’t do a good job of that. And I think really that was the key to the match.

“The bottom line is, for us to win, we had to get them in passing difficulties, so I think our 25 service errors hurt us a lot more than theirs.”

Penn State had 25 service errors as well, but Speraw said the Nittany Lions have improved their passing and defense immensely since the Anteaters swept them in a March 7 nonconference match at UCI.

“Obviously, their passing game has improved quite a bit, and their ball control and certainly their defense,” Speraw said. “They actually were out-digging us for most of that match, and that’s a remarkable achievement because we’ve pretty much out-dug everybody this year.

“That’s a big part of what happened. They played great volleyball. They out-blocked us and out-hit us. Matt Proper [Penn State’s lone All-American, who had a match-high 22 kills] had the match of his career and that’s to his credit, because this is when it matters most. We didn’t really have an answer for him. We didn’t have an answer for their middles early, but we adjusted.”

Speraw also said his team battled.

“I thought we fought like hell and made a match of it,” Speraw said. “I was proud of our guys for the effort they put in. We definitely fought like champions today, but we didn’t quite win it.”

The Anteaters, who lost their final two matches after winning 21 straight, weren’t quite on their game. In addition to the service errors, they lost the blocking battle, 30-19. Nate Meerstein, Penn State’s 6-9 senior middle blocker, had a career-high 13 blocks.

UCI junior outside hitter Jayson Jablonsky, the national Player of the Year, and junior opposite Matt Webber had 20 kills apiece. Jablonsky, who had four straight kills to turn a 25-24 deficit in Game 3 into a 28-26 lead, hit .424 in 33 attempts. Webber hit .244.

Junior setter Brian Thornton had 62 assists and a match-high 11 digs. Sophomore middle Aaron Harrel had 14 kills and junior middle David Smith added 13.

Freshman libero Brent Asuka had nine digs.

Penn State had five players with double-figure kills.

UCI, which hit .513 against Penn State in March, hit .319 Thursday. Penn State, meanwhile, hit .351.

Speraw inserted senior Steffin Rangel into the lineup for senior captain Paul Spittle early in the third game and Spittle never returned.

“I think we had the matchup with Proper against Spittle [who, at 6-1, is six inches shorter],” Penn State Coach Mark Pavlik said. “Paul’s a great player, but Matt’s a big, great player. I think [Rangel] did an incredible job of coming in and settling the Anteaters down.”

UCI, playing in the program’s first NCAA Championship after claiming the first Mountain Pacific Sports Federation regular-season crown, also a first, loses only Spittle and Rangel from this year’s team.

“I’ve got to tip my hat to John Speraw’s UC Irvine team,” Pavlik said. “We had them on the ropes in Game 3, but just like we expected them to, they made a run. Any time you can defeat a team that is that solid and plays that hard, I think that says something about the character your team shows.”dpt-ucivolley05.IMGGraphicInfoB21QLBF220060505B21QLBF2No Captiondpt.05-uci-vball-1-BPhotoInfoJQ1QLBDM20060505iyrw1dncPAT LITTLE / ASSOCIATED PRESS(LA)UC Irvine’s Paul Spittle (10) hits the ball past Penn State’s Dan O’Dell (2) in the second game of their NCAA men’s volleyball semifinal match Thursday.dpt.05-uci-vball-2-BPhotoInfoJQ1QLFNB20060505iyrw24ncNABIL K. MARK / CENTRE DAILY TIMES(LA)Matt Proper (4) spikes the ball over UCI’s Steffin Rangel (25).