Post by bigfan on May 5, 2006 10:17:03 GMT -5
UCI season goes dark, but UCLA gets to final
By WADE MALCOLM
Special to the Orange County Register
-UC Irvine’s Paul Spittle, right, spikes the ball past Penn State’s Dan O’Dell.
STATE COLLEGE, PA. – Everyone had waited a long time to see a resolution to this match.
The two teams and the 3,430 spectators had endured almost three hours of volleyball in the sweltering heat inside Penn State's Rec Hall gym. Finally, with Penn State and UC Irvine tied at 13-13 in the decisive fifth game, a penultimate match point was approaching Thursday night.
That is, until the lights went out.
The teams had to spend 10 agonizing minutes on the bench because half the bulbs hanging from the ceiling went dark.
No.1 seed UC Irvine came out of the sudden break a little less sharp, and the Anteaters lost the next two points to fall to No.4 Penn State, 32-30, 30-23, 31-33, 27-30, 15-13, in the NCAA men's volleyball tournament semifinals.
The Nittany Lions (21-8) advanced to Saturday's national title game, where they face No.2 seed UCLA, which defeated Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne, 30-25, 30-23, 30-28, in the other semifinal.
After the unexpected pause, Penn State earned a match point with a service ace by freshman middle hitter Max Holt, who followed that effort with the match-winning kill.
"I'm not going to sit here and blame the lights," UC Irvine coach John Speraw said. "We went 9-20 last year. We finished the year with 27 wins. That's a remarkable turnaround. We should be proud of that."
From the time Penn State senior middle hitter Nate Meerstein buried an Anteaters overpass, giving Penn State a 1-0 advantage in the match, to the moment the Anteaters (27-5) called a timeout when it fell behind 10-5 in the third game, Penn State was in control. The Nittany Lions were the aggressors.
UCI's heavy hitters executed well enough when given the opportunity to rear back and swing - but that simply did not happen often enough. The Anteaters hit a paltry 31.9 percent compared to Penn State's 35.1.
UCI only had two players over 40 percent. Jayson Jablonsky and Matt Webber each had 20 kills.
Only during the third game did the UCI attackers inflict the kind of damage expected of a potent offensive team enjoying its best season in school history.
"I was curious to see how far we could go," Speraw said. "I thought we could win it all."
In the earlier semifinal, UCLA overcame a lackadaisical start to defeat No.3 seed IPFW.
The Bruins (25-12) plodded their way through the first game. UCLA's offense was frequently disjointed and unable to set up a sustained attack, providing IPFW with easy kill opportunities.
But the Mastadons (23-7) didn't capitalize on UCLA's miscues nearly as often as they should have. Their low 18.7 hitting percentage for the match made the Bruins' sub-par 28.4 percentage look superior.
Junior Steve Klosterman led UCLA with 14 kills on 29 attempts
By WADE MALCOLM
Special to the Orange County Register
-UC Irvine’s Paul Spittle, right, spikes the ball past Penn State’s Dan O’Dell.
STATE COLLEGE, PA. – Everyone had waited a long time to see a resolution to this match.
The two teams and the 3,430 spectators had endured almost three hours of volleyball in the sweltering heat inside Penn State's Rec Hall gym. Finally, with Penn State and UC Irvine tied at 13-13 in the decisive fifth game, a penultimate match point was approaching Thursday night.
That is, until the lights went out.
The teams had to spend 10 agonizing minutes on the bench because half the bulbs hanging from the ceiling went dark.
No.1 seed UC Irvine came out of the sudden break a little less sharp, and the Anteaters lost the next two points to fall to No.4 Penn State, 32-30, 30-23, 31-33, 27-30, 15-13, in the NCAA men's volleyball tournament semifinals.
The Nittany Lions (21-8) advanced to Saturday's national title game, where they face No.2 seed UCLA, which defeated Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne, 30-25, 30-23, 30-28, in the other semifinal.
After the unexpected pause, Penn State earned a match point with a service ace by freshman middle hitter Max Holt, who followed that effort with the match-winning kill.
"I'm not going to sit here and blame the lights," UC Irvine coach John Speraw said. "We went 9-20 last year. We finished the year with 27 wins. That's a remarkable turnaround. We should be proud of that."
From the time Penn State senior middle hitter Nate Meerstein buried an Anteaters overpass, giving Penn State a 1-0 advantage in the match, to the moment the Anteaters (27-5) called a timeout when it fell behind 10-5 in the third game, Penn State was in control. The Nittany Lions were the aggressors.
UCI's heavy hitters executed well enough when given the opportunity to rear back and swing - but that simply did not happen often enough. The Anteaters hit a paltry 31.9 percent compared to Penn State's 35.1.
UCI only had two players over 40 percent. Jayson Jablonsky and Matt Webber each had 20 kills.
Only during the third game did the UCI attackers inflict the kind of damage expected of a potent offensive team enjoying its best season in school history.
"I was curious to see how far we could go," Speraw said. "I thought we could win it all."
In the earlier semifinal, UCLA overcame a lackadaisical start to defeat No.3 seed IPFW.
The Bruins (25-12) plodded their way through the first game. UCLA's offense was frequently disjointed and unable to set up a sustained attack, providing IPFW with easy kill opportunities.
But the Mastadons (23-7) didn't capitalize on UCLA's miscues nearly as often as they should have. Their low 18.7 hitting percentage for the match made the Bruins' sub-par 28.4 percentage look superior.
Junior Steve Klosterman led UCLA with 14 kills on 29 attempts
