Post by bigfan on Apr 11, 2006 12:19:47 GMT -5
UC Irvine looks to be the team to beat
If you're a Southern California-based volleyball enthusiast and have a hankering to see the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation semifinals and championship match on April 27 and 29, you'd better become a fan of the top-ranked UC Irvine Anteaters if that description doesn't fit you already.
The first-place finisher during the MPSF regular season not only gets a bye to the semifinals of the MPSF tournament, it also earns the right to play host to both semifinals and the final match two days later.
Going into the final week of regular-season play, the Anteaters (18-2) hold a one-game advantage over the University of Hawaii Warriors (17-3), with two matches apiece remaining to play.
The UCI team, which has won 19 matches in a row, visits its Cal State Northridge counterpart (which it beat, 3-0, in their first match) on Wednesday and plays host to the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (which the Anteaters knocked off, 3-1, the first go around) on Saturday.
If the Anteaters win both, then what happens in Honolulu between the Warriors (winners of 17 matches in a row) and the BYU Cougars wouldn't keep the MPSF semifinals and final from being held in the Bren Center.
Should the Warriors sweep and the Anteaters be swept, or if they tie for the regular-season title (they split their regular-season matches, both at Hawaii) and the Warriors win out in the tie-breakers, the semifinals and final will be in Honolulu.
OK, do the math on which location Irvine or Honolulu would be more cost-friendly for Southland-based volleyball fans … exactly. You don't even need to break out the calculator on that one.
The Long Beach State 49ers kept their hopes of hosting a quarterfinal match (the No.'s 2, 3 and 4 finishers get that honor on April 22) alive by sweeping its matches with the then-No. 3-ranked BYU Cougars in the Walter Pyramid Thursday and Friday evenings, and are now in sixth place, one game behind CSUN and two games behind fourth-place Pepperdine.
Assuming they sweep 10th-place Pacific and 11th-place Stanford Friday and Saturday, the 49ers could still move into fourth place and get that home match … but it's highly unlikely. The best scenario for that to happen would include BYU losing both of its matches at Hawaii while Cal State Northridge was swept by UCI and UCLA.
"That (scenario) involves things beyond our control," 49ers coach Alan Knipe said Monday morning.
"We can't worry about that. If it plays out, sure, this (the Walter Pyramid) is where we would want to play. It's a cliche but true: We just have to worry about things on our side of the net."
Barring all the dominoes falling the 49ers' way this week, it's most likely they'll play a quarterfinal match at Pepperdine or BYU.
If you're a Southern California-based volleyball enthusiast and have a hankering to see the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation semifinals and championship match on April 27 and 29, you'd better become a fan of the top-ranked UC Irvine Anteaters if that description doesn't fit you already.
The first-place finisher during the MPSF regular season not only gets a bye to the semifinals of the MPSF tournament, it also earns the right to play host to both semifinals and the final match two days later.
Going into the final week of regular-season play, the Anteaters (18-2) hold a one-game advantage over the University of Hawaii Warriors (17-3), with two matches apiece remaining to play.
The UCI team, which has won 19 matches in a row, visits its Cal State Northridge counterpart (which it beat, 3-0, in their first match) on Wednesday and plays host to the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (which the Anteaters knocked off, 3-1, the first go around) on Saturday.
If the Anteaters win both, then what happens in Honolulu between the Warriors (winners of 17 matches in a row) and the BYU Cougars wouldn't keep the MPSF semifinals and final from being held in the Bren Center.
Should the Warriors sweep and the Anteaters be swept, or if they tie for the regular-season title (they split their regular-season matches, both at Hawaii) and the Warriors win out in the tie-breakers, the semifinals and final will be in Honolulu.
OK, do the math on which location Irvine or Honolulu would be more cost-friendly for Southland-based volleyball fans … exactly. You don't even need to break out the calculator on that one.
The Long Beach State 49ers kept their hopes of hosting a quarterfinal match (the No.'s 2, 3 and 4 finishers get that honor on April 22) alive by sweeping its matches with the then-No. 3-ranked BYU Cougars in the Walter Pyramid Thursday and Friday evenings, and are now in sixth place, one game behind CSUN and two games behind fourth-place Pepperdine.
Assuming they sweep 10th-place Pacific and 11th-place Stanford Friday and Saturday, the 49ers could still move into fourth place and get that home match … but it's highly unlikely. The best scenario for that to happen would include BYU losing both of its matches at Hawaii while Cal State Northridge was swept by UCI and UCLA.
"That (scenario) involves things beyond our control," 49ers coach Alan Knipe said Monday morning.
"We can't worry about that. If it plays out, sure, this (the Walter Pyramid) is where we would want to play. It's a cliche but true: We just have to worry about things on our side of the net."
Barring all the dominoes falling the 49ers' way this week, it's most likely they'll play a quarterfinal match at Pepperdine or BYU.
