UCI triumph is Taylor-made

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IRVINE — Taylor Wilson has been around long enough to realize that the butterflies that occupy his stomach the afternoon before a match, can help him take flight hours later.

The 6-foot-7 senior outside hitter was indeed flying high, and prodigiously pounding sets, Saturday night to help host UC Irvine handle UCLA, 30-23, 31-29, 30-32, 30-12, in the quarterfinals of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation men’s volleyball tournament before 2,005 at the Bren Events Center.

The win propels the No. 1-ranked Anteaters (25-4) into Thursday’s semifinal against visiting USC.

USC, the No. 5 seed in the eight-team conference tournament, rallied to post a road upset of No. 4-seeded Stanford, 20-30, 27-30, 30-27, 30-24, 15-11, Saturday.

Wilson, the lone remaining stater from UCI’s NCAA championship team of 2007, had a career-high 29 kills to pace the top-seeded winners, who won all four matches this season from the Bruins (14-16). Wilson hit .412 for the match.

“It was adrenaline, definitely,” Wilson said of the fuel for his best kill output as an Anteater. “Before the match, at 4 o’clock, I was the most nervous I’ve been for a match. And I was starting to think to myself ‘This is good, because I tend to play better when I get nervous.’ So I was really getting nervous and excited before the match and it was great. I just used it.”

UCI senior setter Ryan Ammerman (61 assists) clearly used Wilson’s hot hand, and also helped trigger strong hitting performances from sophomore outside hitter Jordan DuFault and freshman opposite Carson Clark.

DuFault had 16 kills and hit .462, while Clark, the MPSF Freshman of the Year, had 18 kills and hit .389 to help the ’Eaters hit .350 as a team, 59 points better than the Bruins.

“I thought that our outside hitters, in general, with Taylor and Jordan, carried us through some tough times,” UCI Coach John Speraw said. “Taylor being a senior, I was happy for him to see him come out and play that well. And, part of our success down the stretch is the fact that Jordan has become such an offensive threat. He has just been unbelievable the last month.”

Speraw was less impressed, though gratified, by his team’s performance, which according to most observers, virtually assures the Anteaters at least an at-large berth into the four-team NCAA Championships.

UCI, just as it did in 2006, won the MPSF regular-season title. It lost that season in the MPSF Tournament semifinals, but still went to the Final Four as an at-large selection. The MPSF Tournament winner receives an automatic bid and the lone at-large berth is typically given to a second MPSF representative.

“We didn’t play our best match of the year, and yet we were still able to win, and I think to be able to do that in the playoffs is great,” said Speraw, a former UCLA middle blocker and assistant coach who is now 9-8 in his seven seasons at the UCI helm, against his alma mater — and legendary Coach Al Scates, who has guided UCLA to 21 national championships.

Speraw said one key to the match was actually his team’s third-set loss.

“I really liked how we were able to grind, from being down, 8-1, in Game 3, to almost win that,” Speraw said. “And win or lose, with no timeouts left, man that was an incredible run [eventually pulling even at 28 to extend the game]. That momentum we gained through that game is what really carried us through to win so convincingly in Game 4.

Ammerman, a first-team All-MPSF performer, had half of UCI’s six aces and he also had a solo block and two block assists to go with two kills.

UCI, which leads the nation in blocking (averaging 3.62 blocks per set), managed only a slight advantage in team blocks (8-6.5). UCI middle blockers Kevin Wynne and Austin D’Amore combined for only eight kills. Wynne had six kills and a team-high five block assists.

UCI has beaten USC twice in as many tries this season.

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