Well here we are again.
Four months ago (to the day, in fact), this men’s college volleyball season began on a chilly night in Provo, and the whole time, this is the matchup I think most people were expecting to see at the end of the season. BYU and UC Irvine are the only teams to top the national polls this season, BYU for 11 weeks and Irvine for four, and while the Anteaters actually dropped as low as #4, it was clear from the word go that these were the two elite programs in the nation. All apologies to Long Beach State and UCLA, who each did their level best to crash the party, but this is the match we were bound to have.
One of the idiosyncrasies of men’s volleyball is that rematches at this stage of the season are a heckuva lot more likely than they are in women’s. There simply aren’t enough programs for them not to be. Even if the match weren’t two teams from the same conference, as it is for the second year in a row, many teams play preseason invitationals with the elite teams from other conferences. Same thing happens in women’s, but when there’s 3 conferences rather than 31 — yeah, the odds of a rematch skyrocket. Two teams very familiar with one another faced off with the ultimate prize in NCAA men’s volleyball at stake.
Pauley Pavilion wasn’t jam-packed, but, as could be expected, both sides brought strong contingents with them. The match started off with sideout after sideout, with the Anteaters taking one on serve when they blocked Russ Lavaja up the middle on a trap set by Ryan Boyce. That let UCI serve with the slender lead at 4-3, but the Cougars rattled off three straight after that, including a big Lavaja/Taylor Sander double block. The lead extended to three with an Anteater overpass at 7-5 on Lavaja’s serve leading to an easy Sander kill. That deficit held steady for a time until the Anteaters found another block, against Rivera this time, to make it back within 10-9. On the 11-9 rally, Devin Young scrambled to the scorer’s table to try to field a wayward pass, but couldn’t quite reign it in. At 12-11, UCI made it back even again when Connor Hughes beat the triple block with a sort of a hybrid shot that wasn’t a total smash, but it wasn’t a roll either. The TV timeout came with both teams hitting really well, lots of short rallies, and the Anteaters ahead just 15-14.
The Anteaters went ahead 2 for the first time on the first point after the timeout, with Hughes’ serve just dying in front of Rivera. It was a dodgy pass leading a solo right-side block by setter Chris Austin. Another block, against Ben Patch, led by Kevin Tillie on the opposite side, made it 17-14, and it was very quickly timeout BYU. The pass was a lot better on the first rally after the timeout, and led to a one-on-one net matchup for Sander against Austin which, as it should, favoured the Cougars. 18-16 was the longest rally of the match, and it appeared that UCI got away with a pretty blatant back-row blocker, but the Cougars got the point anyway with Sander finding the floor again. Patch came up with his fourth kill of the set to make it 18-all, and it was timeout UCI.
BYU took the next point after the timeout to go up a point, but it didn’t last. After Zack La Cavera sided the Anteaters out at 20-all, a Kevin Tillie block made it 20-19 UCI. 21-all was a terrific rally, both sides scrambling for the ball, ending with a kill for La Cavera. It came off a difficult set, but with for how out of sorts the BYU defence was, it wasn’t a tough ask to find the floor. On 22-all, Tillie appeared to have another sideout for the Anteaters on a good roll shot, but he was called for a back-row attack (replays showed the call was pretty obvious). That made it 23-22 BYU, and it was timeout Anteaters once more.
Hughes beat the block, against Tyler Heap, on the first point after the timeout to make it a tie set again. The Anteaters put up a huge triple block to reject Sander on the next rally to get to set point at 24-23, and the Cougars called time. The Anteaters went to a front-row sub with freshman Kyle Russell, and he came up with the set-deciding kill on a contentious call. The hit was easily long and wide, but the up ref called a touch at the net. The BYU players protested, but it was to no avail, and the Anteaters went up a set to nil.
BYU appeared to go up 2-0, after a sideout and a strong serve from Sander led to another. Play was then stopped as the down official had a protracted discussion with BYU head coach Chris McGown, and eventually the second point was erased and given to UCI. McGown had, by appearances filled out a different second set lineup (rotation) than the team actually ran out. By the paperwork, Boyce should have been the first server, not Sander. After a delay of 2 or 3 minutes, Austin took the service line for the Anteaters — and shanked his serve into the net.
The teams traded silly net faults on 3-2 and 3-3, and BYU took the first 2-point lead of the set at 5-3. Ben Patch came up with the first service ace of the match on either side with what Karch Kiraly (great to have him on commentary) called a “scroogie.” Never heard that one before. But whatever you call it, it was a 3-point lead for the Cougars. BYU made it four at 8-4 with an ace for Sander, and it was timeout UCI. The Cougars executed their offence perfectly on the first rally back, leading to a blocking mismatch for Sander against Austin, putting BYU up five. A kill from Lavaja made it truck-driver time, 10-4, and another put the team from Provo up seven. Hughes sided the Anteaters out at 11-5, and Kiraly noted that they got away with an under during the rally. Irvine took 3 in a row to make it back within 11-7, and BYU took their first timeout. Two more for the ‘Eaters after the timeout, and it was a quick second timeout for the Cougars, their lead trimmed to 11-9.
The Cougars at last got their sideout after the second timeout, with Lavaja pushing back Tillie on a joust straight up the middle. On 12-10, La Cavera found a huge seam in the double block and the back edge of the court to make it a one-point set again, and then tied it with the ace. Tillie completed the comeback on 13-all to give UCI their first lead of the set at 14-13. Tillie rotated to serve at 15-14, and Jaylen Reyes‘ pass was just south of miraculous to keep the falcon-like serve alive, leading to a perfect in-system pass to Josue Rivera for a kill to tie the set again. But on 16-15, Patch’s right-side swing went into Scott Kevorken and the double block, to put the Anteaters up 2. On 18-17, BYU brought Heap back in again, but he was just a one-rotation blocking sub, as El Bigote entered back again following the Anteater sideout.
On service at 19-18, the Cougars made it back even again at 19-all with the middle attack by Young. On the 20-all rally, Sander had a chance to put the Cougars back ahead again, but his roll shot landed long. On 21-20, a La Cavera kill off the block and out put the Anteaters back ahead 2, and critically late. The Anteaters reached set point at 24-22, and closed it out on serve to go up 2-nil.
I figured this match would have a full halftime, if for nothing else than ESPN ad time, but it didn’t. After just the standard 3-minute layoff between sets, we were back again. Just like in set 1, the teams traded points early on. On 6-all, BYU came up with just their third block of the night — and first since the first set. At 7-all, the Cougars recovered from a difficult Anteater serve beautifully, with Reyes’ diving dig finding Boyce in stride to set Rivera for the kill. But the match went on very, very evenly, with ties at just about every numerical score. After it was BYU who were able to serve with the lead, a double block for Kevorken and Hughes made it 11-10 Anteaters, and UCI took the 2-point lead at 12-10 with another Kevorken block on the next rally. A La Cavera service error on 13-11 sided the Cougars out of a tough rotation with Rivera and Boyce in the front row, and sent Rivera back to serve. The serve on 13-12 got the Anteaters out of system to lead to a hitting error, wide. The Cougars made it three in a row on the next rally with a kill from Sander, but the Anteaters took two to make it 15-14 at the TV timeout.
UCI’s 13-and-a-halfth (seriously Firefox? No red squiggly line under ‘halfth’ ? Okay….) block made it a 2-point set again. BYU went back to Tyler Heap as the setter, and this time he remained in the match. Phil Fuchs came in for BYU to serve at 16-15, and his first serve resulted in a BYU triple block to tie the set. Irvine nearly went back ahead on a great rally at 18-17, but BYU got the sideout to tie it again when Tillie’s roll shot flew just long — much like Sander’s in the previous set. The Anteaters were called for 4 hits on the next rally when their attack attempt failed to clear the net. They protested for a moment, asking for a block touch to be called, but to no avail. ‘Air France’ took to the service line at 19-all, but his one attempt resulted in an error. A kill for Rivera up the middle made it 21-19 BYU, and UCI called, rather surprisingly, the set’s first timeout.
Sander extended the Cougars to three with a kill coming out of the timeout. The Cougars scored on a ridiculously out-of-system rally a sideout later, with Heap making his set from 5 feet off the playable court (but near by the net) to find Sander from the pipe — just like they drew it up. BYU reached set point at 24-21, negating Irvine’s move to Woloson as the serving sub. But the Anteaters staved off the first two, to make it 24-23, with a Sander hitting error on the second of those points. BYU called their timeout with one last set point in hand.
BYU went to the middle attack with Lavaja, something Kiraly had only moments before said would really surprise him. It didn’t surprise the Anteaters, who had the block waiting for him. They put the block up on the next rally too, to reach national championship point at 25-24. And what else would end it, but the Anteaters’ 17th team block of the night, making Irvine repeat national champions.
#2 UC Irvine d. #1 BYU (25-23, 25-22, 26-24)
What a great match to end a great season. UCI played amazingly well tonight. Their block just obliterated BYU’s. And yet you can’t really say it was a horrible match from BYU (it was bad, but not nightmare-stuff, is my point). They should have closed out set 3 and sent it to a 4th, but the Anteaters just were not to be denied in this match. There’s nobody in the nation who could have beaten them tonight.
It goes without saying that the result leaves a bad taste in the mouths of the departing BYU players, but probably mostly so for Ben Patch. The freshman had a dandy first set with 5 kills, but ended the match with only 7, and wasn’t even getting set very much as the match went on. He hit just .091, on 7/5/22, unconscionably low for him. Sander carried the offence for the Cougars, with 20 kills, but without a lot of help (Patch’s rough night was echoed by Lavaja’s 8/5/13 slash line, which is pretty bad for your MB1), the UCI block started to key on him.
Irvine’s own attack was balanced, as three different Anteaters tied to lead the team in kills with 11 — Tillie, La Cavera, and tournament Most Outstanding Player Hughes. Blocking was of course a big, big advantage for UCI, with Scott Kevorken alone out-blocking the entire BYU team (1 solo and 11 assists versus 12 assists). Total team blocks went to UCI, 17 to 6. That….that’ll win ya the match.
I got into a discussion on twitter during the match about what Irvine’s ‘championship experience’ did or did not mean for this match. I contend that Irvine winning a specific match a year ago, with some different players, a different coach, at a different venue, against a different opponent, has no bearing on what they did tonight. Why would it make a difference tonight and not any other night? I could maybe see it mattering in a 64-team, 3-weekend tournament, but this tournament lasts 2 days. And BYU were more dominant than UCI in the semis. The Cougars were not deer in the headlights. They just didn’t play especially well in crunch time. It happens. It happened to Oregon last winter in the women’s final (even more so). If one of the teams’ regular season matches had gone this way, people would just chalk it up as another match.
Is there something to be said for ‘showing up’ when all the marbles are at stake? Ehhh…..I guess so. I seriously doubt BYU were intimidated at all going into this match, no more than they ever would have been. It’s not a matter of them playing out of their depth or the lights being too bright. It was just a rough night for everyone but Sander.
But no matter what, it takes nothing away from the amazing accomplishment by the UC Irvine Anteaters. Congratulations to David Kniffin on his first national title in his first season as a head coach. Something tells me it won’t be the last.
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