UCI vs. LB St./UCSD this Wknd

[robonthemic]

April 9, 2007

UC IRVINE CLOSES OUT THE REGULAR SEASON: No. 3 UC Irvine will close out the regular season, hosting No. 12 Long Beach State Friday (Apr. 13) at 7:00 pm. in the Bren Events Center then traveling to UC San Diego Saturday (Apr. 14) for a 7:00 p.m. first serve.

Friday’s match versus Long Beach State is part of the Black & Blue Rivalry Series presented by Duke’s of Huntington Beach. The Forty-Niners currently lead 25-15. UCI’s four seniors, Brian Thornton, Jayson Jablonsky, Matt Webber and David Smith will also be honored before that match.

2008 NCAA TICKET DRAWING: Friday's match will also feature a drawing for two tickets to the 2008 NCAA Championship hosted by UC Irvine. Free tickets for the drawing will be available on the Bren Center concourse.

VERSUS THE OPPONENTS: UCI trails Long Beach, 26-7, but leads UC San Diego, 26-4 in the series records.

The Anteaters defeated the Forty-Niners in five games earlier this year with Matt Webber leading all players with 20 kills, nine digs, six total blocks and three service aces. Middle blocker David Smith recorded a match-high 13 total blocks, which included a season-high 11 block assists. Paul Lotman led LBSU with 16 kills and four aces. The Forty-Niners enter the week 11-15 overall and 6-14 in the MPSF. They will travel to UCLA Wednesday before heading to the Bren Center.

UC San Diego is 5-21 overall and 2-18 in league play. The Anteaters had a season-high 11 service aces in the 3-0 win over the Tritons earlier this year.

MPSF PICTURE: The Anteaters have secured a MPSF quarterfinal match at home on April 21, but the opponent is yet to be determined. The Anteaters can be no lower than the No. 3 seed, as they hold a tiebreaker over UCSB. UCI enters the week in third place, one game behind BYU, who travels to Pacific for a pair of matches. The MPSF semifinals (Apr. 26) and final (Apr. 28) will be held at the No. 1 seed Pepperdine. UCI has made a post-season appearance three of the last four years.

[robonthemic]

Saturday's match @ UCSD will be webcasted at www.mvball.uci.edu -- be sure to listen in if you can't make it down to La Jolla.

[1221pch]

UCI in 3, wasn't ever in question.

[robonthemic]

See original story @ www.mvball.uci.edu

April 14, 2006

NO. 3 UC IRVINE SWEEPS LONG BEACH STATE ON SENIOR NIGHT (Boxscore)

Irvine, Calif. -- After honoring UCI's four seniors, the third-ranked Anteaters blanked No. 12 Long Beach State, 3-0 (30-25, 30-21, 30-19) Friday at the Bren Events Center in front of 1,726 fans.

Senior opposite Matt Webber led all players with 13 kills, hitting .500 (13-3-20) and firing three service aces. With the three service aces, Webber moves into second on the UCI season aces list with 41, five shy of the school record set by Spencer Benus in 2004. Senior outside hitter Jayson Jablonsky totaled 11 kills and also fired three service aces, while senior middle blocker David Smith hit .727 on eight kills in 11 swings without an error. Smith also had a team-high four blocks. Senior setter Brian Thornton orchestrated the Anteaters to a .449 team hitting percentage, while recording 41 assists, two kills and two blocks. Sophomore Taylor Wilson pitched in 10 kills and Brent Asuka had a match-high 11 digs.

Long Beach State was led by Dean Bittner with 11 kills, the only 49ers to hit double-digits. Paul Lotman and Teddy Liles each totaled seven kills, while Lotman had six digs. Long Beach State out-blocked UCI, 8.5 t0 7.0, but hit just .193 on the night.

UCI led 18-12 in game one, but Long Beach State went on a 8-2 run to tie the game at 20-20 on a Lotman kill. The Anteaters would use two Forty-niner errors, including a block by Jablonsky and Smith to extend the lead to 22-20. UCI would never relinqish the lead, taking the set 30-25.

With the score tied 8-8, the Anteaters went on a 11-4 spurt to open up a 19-12 advantage. The Anteaters would win the game 30-21 behind four kills by Webber and Wilson.

The final game was all UCI as they jumped out to a 7-3 lead and never looked back going on to the 30-19 victory.

The Anteaters improve to 23-5 overall and 16-5 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play. Long Beach State drops to 11-17 on the year and 6-16 in league play. The win gives UCI two points in the Black & Blue Rivalry Series sponsored by Duke's of Huntington Beach.

UCI will close out the regular season, traveling to UC San Diego Saturday (Apr. 14) for a 7:00 p.m. match at the RIMAC Arena.

[UCvBall]

Does anyone know why Norm Hutton didn't play that much in this match? Has he been play much at all? Whats going on with that?

[whyuwanna]

who knows...he was hitting around 300 with like 4 something kills a game...maybe coach wanted to play youth???

[ucivball]

I've seen long beach play in 5 matches this year, plus matches from last year where hutton was the stater, here's my verdict.

between hutton and bittner, i believe bittner is just a better player, regardless of the fact that bittner is a freshman and hutton a junior. so if you're inclined to make the argument that bittner is getting playing time b/c knipe is going for youth, then it wouldn't matter much if bittner is actually just better than hutton.

bittner is of course 2 inches taller, he presents a bigger block, and i think he is leading long beach in blocks per game. in terms of attacking, bittner is also the better attacker. hutton has the bomb away mentality, and he either gets roofed or puts the ball away impressively. bittner also has a cannon, but he does not get block that often b/c he hits high. just from the match yesterday, many of his d balls were mediocre/dead play balls that he was able to turn into kills b/c he swung high and tooled the block.

bittner is probably more athletic than hutton. hutton isn't as fleet footed as bittner. and with long beach having a freshman setter whose location isn't always precise, having hutton hit off of inconsistent setting with his low hitting mentality would greatly disadvantage him against an established block. for the circumstances this season, i think bittner is an obvious choice at right side attacker over hutton, simply b/c he is a better player.

however, hutton may just be in knipes dog house b/c during the beach's home game against pepperdine, bittner was hurt with a shoulder injury, which would suggest hutton to be the obvious replacement. but instead, fabry got the start at rightside and hutton was still left on the bench. however, long beach nearly upset pepperdine in this match as pepperdine had to come back from 2-0 down. but a hutton v. fabry on the right side comparison may not be as clear as bittner over hutton.

but it appears to me that hutton may be riding the bench again next year.

[shankapotamus]

From my "inside sources" Hutton doesn't connect too well with Eaton. It seems he got used to receiving gems from Hildebrand last year. The "source" implied that Hutton "feels more confident" with Schlesinger at the the helm. I don't know how true it is but Hutton was a pretty effective OPP last year. He punished Irvine in the MPSF Semi. Chemistry had to do with his current status.

[UCvBall]

Thanks guys. Waterboy, that was exactly what I was thinking, in terms of Hutton being effective last year. I was at the MPSF Semi's last year watching Hutton play an amazing game. He was in part probably the biggest factor of that game, he changed a lot of things and just played really well, in route to defeating the #1 seeded team. thats where my question stemed from, thanks again.

[tedmoseby]

I have heard the same about Hutton, but it is not Schlesinger he connects well with but Iandolo. Schlesinger moved to middle about halfway through the season. In the first Hawaii match, second set, the Beach was already floundering and they sent in Iandolo with Hutton as the RS. Of the six assists Iandolo tallied, 4 were to Hutton. Eaton sets a lot of trap sets to the right pin, or way outside. I would suggest that Bitner's shoulder was hurt because he has a weird half-height swing to begin with and he was swinging hard at poorly located sets.

I have also heard that players are constantly in Knipes doghouse and have no clue why. He was very impatient this year and yanked players so much they were all looking over their shoulders.

I've heard that the second court team, with Iandolo setting, constantly beat up on the first court team in drills at the end of the season. Recently Iandolo was moved up to the first court but still didn't play at the end. The first court guys played with no emotion at the end and the second court guys played hard, but in the end practice performance doesn't truly seem to matter with Knipe. Christiansen almost single handed led them to a win in the 5 set first match against Hawaii with his serving and defense in the 4th set, but then didn't even play the second match. A lot of the kid's think Knipe just plays favorites. The team fell aparrt at the end of the season with some starters moping around. Why not give the hard working second court guys more of a chance when the season is already the worst season in God knows how many years? Here's one fan who thinks the coaching staff blew it this year and maybe weren't all on the same page...