UC Irvine 3, Ohio State 1 (2nd match)

[weaver]

Ohio State’s Drops Second 3-1 decision to UC Irvine in Exhibition Match
Stevens has 19.5 points and Klein, 15 for the Buckeyes.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State men’s volleyball team lost a second, 3-1 (30-22, 30-26, 26-30, 30-23) decision to UC Irvine Sunday night in St. John Arena in an exhibition match. Ohio State’s Sam Stevens (5th/Sr., Miami, Fla.) scored a match-high 19.5 points for the Buckeyes with Robbie Klein (Jr./So., Cincinnati, Ohio) adding 15. Stevens had a match-high 18 kills, one ace serve and an assist block while Klein posted 12 kills, two ace serves and a solo block. UC Irvine’s Matt Webber scored a team-high 18 points with Jayson Jablonsky adding 17.5. Webber had a team-high 17 kills and two assist blocks while Jablonsky contributed 14 kills, two ace serves and three assist blocks.

Tied at seven in game one, a kill from Stevens and a Brett Versen (Sr./Jr., Centerville, Ohio) ace serve gave Ohio State a 9-7 lead. An OSU error and a Jablonsky kill tied the game at nine. Three Buckeye errors opened a 12-9 Anteater lead. Trailing 17-13, Ohio State, with kills from Klein and Matthew Hankey (Sr./Jr., Naperville, Ill.) and a UC Irvine error cut the lead to one at 17-16. Anteater kills from Brandon Mel and David Smith and two OSU errors put UC Irvine ahead, 21-16. At 26-22, Anteaters, two kills from Webber and a Webber-Aaron Harrell block set game point at 29-22. An OSU error ended the game at 30-22. UC Irvine hit .345 for the game to -.067 for Ohio State.

After Ohio State opened game two with a Klein kill, two kills from Harrell, a Harrell-Taylor Wilson block and an OSU error gave UC Irvine a 4-1 lead. The Anteaters held the lead and at 27-23, two UC Irvine errors and an ace serve from Stevens cut the lead to one at 27-26. Kills from Webber and Jablonsky set game point at 29-26 and a Jablonsky ended the game at 30-26. The Anteaters hit .400 for the game to .296 for the Buckeyes.

Ohio State trailed 3-2 in game three when a Layne Dreven (5th/Sr., Pittsburgh, Pa.) kill tied the game at three. A Buckeye block from Versen and Ben Spurlock (Jr./So., Stow, Ohio), kills from Stevens and Versen and an Anteater error gave OSU a 7-3 lead. At 8-4, UC Irvine scored six straight points to take a 10-8 lead. The run began with kills from Webber and Smith, two OSU errors and blocks by Jablonsky-Smith and Smith-Brian Thornton. At 12-10, a kill from Stevens and an Anteater error tied the game at 12. A Jablonsky kill made it 13-12, UC Irvine. A Dreven kill, a Dreven-Versen block and a UC Irvine error gave OSU a 15-13 lead. At 16-14, OSU, two OSU errors, a Smith kill and a Cole Reinholm ace serve opened an 18-16 Anteater lead. At 19-17, two kills from Stevens and a UC Irvine error gave OSU a 20-19 lead. A Buckeye error tied the game at 20. A Versen kill and an Anteater error gave Ohio State a 22-20 lead. At 24-22, a UC Irvine error, a Klein ace serve and a Stevens-Dreven-Versen block gave Ohio State a 27-22 lead. Two OSU errors cut the Buckeye lead to 27-24. At 29-26, a Spurlock kill ended the game at 30-26. Ohio State hit .121 for the game to .100 for UC Irvine.

UC Irvine broke a 3-3 tie in game four with a Smith kill and a Smith-Reinholm block for a 5-3 lead. Trailing 16-14, a Klein kill and an Anteater error tied the game at 16. Jablonsky, with a kill, gave UC Irvine a 17-16 lead. Kills from Klein and Dreven gave OSU an 18-17 lead. An OSU error tied the game at 18. Tied at 21, kills from Jablonsky and Reinholm gave UC Irvine a 23-21 lead. An Anteater error made it 23-22. UC Irvine scored the next six points starting with kills from Smith and Jablonsky. The run continued with a Reinholm ace serve, a Smith-Thornton block, an OSU error and a Jablonski kill to reach match point at 29-22. OSU stopped the first match point with a kill from Stevens. With a kill, Smith ended the game at 30-22, for a 3-1 victory in the match. The Anteaters hit .500 for the match to .344 for Ohio State.

For the match, UC Irvine hit .330 to .172 for Ohio State. The Anteaters had a 56-53 advantage in kills while Ohio State had a seven-to-five margin in ace serves. The Buckeyes gave up 19 service errors to 18 for UC Irvine. Defensively, the Anteaters had a 32-27 edge in digs with UC Irvine’s Thornton and Brent Asuka and OSU Conor Martin (Jr., Avon Lake, Ohio) sharing match-high honors with seven each. At the net, the Anteaters had a nine to 6.5 advantage in team blocks. Smith for UC Irvine and Versen for the Buckeyes shared match-high honors with four assist blocks each. OSU setter Daniel Mathews (Jr., Shorewood, Wis.) and UC Irvine’s Thornton each collected 46 assists in the match.

Volleyball Box Score
The Automated ScoreBook
UC Irvine vs Ohio State (Dec 17, 2006 at Columbus, Ohio)

UC Irvine | ATTACK |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF| BLOCK |GEN
## Name GP| K E TA PCT| A| SA SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7 Thornton, Brian..... 4| 1 0 2 .500| 46| 0 4| 0| 7| 0 2 1| 0| 2.0
11 Jablonsky, Jayson... 4| 14 7 31 .226| 1| 2 3| 0| 6| 0 3 0| 0| 17.5
13 Webber, Matt........ 4| 17 6 30 .367| 1| 0 5| 1| 3| 0 2 0| 0| 18.0
14 Mel, Brandon........ 1| 2 2 9 .000| 0| 0 1| 2| 1| 0 1 0| 0| 2.5
15 Smith, David........ 4| 11 0 12 .917| 0| 1 0| 0| 2| 0 4 1| 0| 14.0
21 Harrell, Aaron...... 2| 6 0 10 .600| 1| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 3 0| 0| 7.5
2 Wilson, Taylor...... 1| 0 1 4 -.250| 0| 0 1| 0| 2| 0 1 0| 0| 0.5
3 Ammerman, Ryan...... 2| 0 0 0 .000| 2| 0 1| 0| 0| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
5 Reinholm, Cole...... 2| 3 2 8 .125| 0| 2 1| 0| 2| 0 1 0| 0| 5.5
6 Spittle, Nick....... 1| 0 0 2 .000| 0| 0 0| 1| 2| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
8 Asuka, Brent........ 3| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 0| 7| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
12 Simpson, Brett...... 2| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 2| 0| 0| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
18 Kohout, Brett....... 2| 2 1 4 .250| 0| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 1 0| 0| 2.5
TEAM................ | | | | 3| | | | 0.0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Totals.............. 4| 56 19 112 .330| 51| 5 18| 7| 32| 0 18 2| 0| 70.0

TEAM ATTACK PER GAME TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 9.0
Game K E TA Pct
1 14 4 29 .345 GAME SCORES 1 2 3 4 TEAM RECORDS
2 14 4 25 .400 UC Irvine........... (3) 30 30 26 30
3 11 8 30 .100 Ohio State.......... (1) 22 26 30 23
4 17 3 28 .500

Ohio State | ATTACK |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF| BLOCK |GEN
## Name GP| K E TA PCT| A| SA SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4 Mathews, Daniel..... 4| 2 1 4 .250| 46| 1 3| 0| 3| 0 1 2| 0| 3.5
6 Versen, Brett....... 4| 6 12 28 -.214| 1| 2 4| 0| 3| 0 4 0| 0| 10.0
9 Stevens, Sam........ 4| 18 8 30 .333| 0| 1 1| 1| 6| 0 1 1| 0| 19.5
11 Westendorf, Mike.... 2| 2 1 7 .143| 0| 0 0| 0| 1| 0 1 0| 0| 2.5
13 Klein, Robert....... 4| 12 6 27 .222| 1| 2 6| 1| 5| 1 0 0| 0| 15.0
14 Dreven, Layne....... 4| 9 1 14 .571| 0| 1 1| 0| 0| 0 3 0| 0| 11.5
1 Meske, Dan.......... 3| 0 0 1 .000| 0| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
7 Spurlock, Ben....... 2| 2 1 6 .167| 0| 0 1| 0| 1| 0 1 0| 0| 2.5
15 Martin, Conor....... 4| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 1| 7| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
16 Hankey, Matt........ 1| 2 2 5 .000| 0| 0 2| 0| 1| 0 0 0| 0| 2.0
17 Kues, Brian......... 3| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 1| 0| 0| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
TEAM................ | | | | 2| | | | 0.0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Totals.............. 4| 53 32 122 .172| 48| 7 19| 5| 27| 1 11 3| 0| 66.5

TEAM ATTACK PER GAME TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 6.5
Game K E TA Pct
1 9 11 30 -.067 Site: Columbus, Ohio (St. John Arena)
2 14 6 27 .296 Date: Dec 17, 2006 Attend: 137 Time: 1:45
3 13 9 33 .121 Referees: Miller, Hambrock
4 17 6 32 .344

[robonthemic]

Thanks for posting the story. David Smith (UC Irvine) hit an astounding .917 with 11 kills and 0 (zero) errors. Speraw tweaked the lineup a little bit tonight and it looked like the set distribution was more consistent with what we saw w/ last year's Anteater team.

[baywatcher]

Looks like Irvine is auditioning for a replacement for the graduated Spittle at OH, as only returning starters played all four games this time.

[ucivball]

if the season started now, i think cole reinholm will be the 2nd outside. taylor wilson is big at 6'7 and is a good passer. but he just does not hit the ball hard enough as an outside hitter. brandon mel is on the small size and does not have the talent like spittle did to make up for his lack of size.

interestingly, i saw webber playing outside at the ucla tournament. I think the only way this will happen is if jon stellar comes back from knee surgery a year ago and plays at his top level. we haven't heard much from stellar b/c he had a medical redshirt last year. but his freshman year, he was selected to the all tournament team at the e-bar tournament and recorded 22 kills in both matches he played. he put webber on the bench as a freshman!

if this dream scenario (at least for a uci fan) comes true, irvine will truely be tough to beat. i talked to webber at the ucla tournament and he said he worked on passing all throughout the summer and is gaining more and more confidence. with jablonsky and webber as outsides, i only see cala and perez from byu as rivals for best OH tandem in college vball. and with stellar on the right, uci will really have powerful wing hitters that can bomb away on every ball.

blocking will be much improved under this scenario also, webber is 6'7 and stellar is around 6'7-6'8, and jablonsky jumps out of the gym when he blocks.

this team would be very fun to watch, i can't remember the last time i saw a team with a lefty outside and a lefty opposite.

so here's my christmas wish as a uci fan: for jon stellar to come back healthy to fill out the rightside position and push webber to the 2nd OH vacancy.

[sharp716]

Good call ucivball. I've been thinking the same thing for over a year now (Webber at OH and Steller at OPP). I remember Steller getting the chance to play because Webber hurt his shoulder. The guy has a cannon for an arm and is the future of UCI's offense.

[shankapotamus]

What is Steller's status? Can you imagine a front row w/ Smith (6'7"), Webber (6'7"-- 6'10 w/ the mohawk) and Stellar (6'8")? I saw Webber playing a few weeks ago and he is packing more heat this year from the service line, and right side. If he continues working hard that boy will be close to unstoppable at either side of the court. Thornton's got incredible game smarts and is able to put the ball in excellent locations for his hitters. He gets everyone involved and keeps the defense honest.