California Baptist University
UC Irvine
ANT-EATEN
1/3/2007 8:00:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
Playing down, 2 games to none, 3-time defending NAIA champion California Baptist forced a fourth game, and led as late as 20-16, but UC Irvine held the Lancers to an anemic .034 (8-7-29) percentage in the final game of a 30-24, 30-23, 27-30, 30-25 win.
The loss snaps a string of 24 consecutive home victories for California Baptist (0-1), including last year's championship-clinching win over Lindenwood last April. Meanwhile, UC Irvine starts out its season with a victory over the Lancers for the second year in a row, after having held on for a 5-game victory in
“UC Irvine is a great team, there's no arguing that,” said California Baptist head coach Ryan McGuyre, in his fifth season at the Lancers' helm. “I thought we could have had them in game 4, but we let them back in when it's all said and done.”
“We had way too many hitting errors all the way around,” he said. “You're not going to get wins against teams like this if you hit 24 percent.”
All-American opposite Matt Webber's attack error gave California Baptist a solid, 20-16 lead, but he made up for his mistake right away, answering with a kill that sparked a 5-0 run. Aaron Harrell would later post a block to kick off a 3-point sprint to put the Anteaters out in front, 26-22 en route to the match-clinching victory.
Two-time NAIA/Tachikara National Invitational MVP Shasmu Awudu finished with a match-high 20 kills and Romain Vetter had 12 kills against just one error on 17 swings overall.
“We just couldn't stay in sync or build up any kind of lasting rhythm tonight,” said McGuyre. “Our blocking is improved, and that really helped us out, particularly in the third set.”
After a dormant first 2 games, the Lancers came alive in game 3, hitting a blistering .455 (16-1-33) and outblocking the Anteaters 6-0 in a 30-27 win.
Ahead, 12-9, the Lancers had a chance to keep the momentum going, but a service error awarded the Anteaters with the first of 3 consecutive points, tying the game at 12 apiece.
California Baptist built its lead to 17-14 after Urs Gunthor followed up a kill with a pair of block assists in a 5-2 run, but UCI countered with Cole Reinholm kill and a Matt Webber kill that made the score 17-16.
The Lancers led 26-24 before committing a service error that would spark a 2-0, game-tying run. Following a California Baptist timeout, Reinholm made a service error of his own that gave the Lancers the lead for good, and Awudu's service ace at 28-26 ensured a 30-27 win.
The Lancers were within 2 points, trailing 15-17, in game 2, but another first-serve error put the Anteaters back on the prowl, as they claimed 8 of the next 11 points to stretch the lead to 18-25.
Vetter smacked a pair of consecutive kills to bring the game to 25-20, but David Smith pounded piggyback kills and paired up with Brian Thornton to make the UCI advantage 28-20.
The Anteaters, who posted 5 blocks and held the Lancers to just one stuff in the sophomore set, improved on their first-game showing with a .371 (18-5-35) clip and held California Baptist to a .222 (14-6-36) average to pick up the 30-23 game 2 win.
Webber and Sun matched .444 (5-1-9) hitting efforts in the opening set, but UCI capitalized on 6 Lancer service errors?including 5 on first serves?and outhit the home team, .333 (15-4-33) to .206 (13-6-34).
The Anteaters began to pull away thanks to a 10-2 run that turned what had once been a 9-8 contest into a 19-11 advantage.
Down, 28-19, following a block by the Anteaters' Ryan Ammerman and David Smith, the Lancers made a game of it on the strength of back-to-back blocks by Gunthor and Dan Buehring, but Webber sent home his fifth kill of the evening to end the game at 30-24.
Jayson Jablonsky, the 2006 National Player of the Year, posted a team-high 17 kills in the win.
