UC Irvine Wins Third MPSF Championship
April 30, 2015 April 30-May 1, 2015
Host: University of California, Irvine
Bren Events Center; Irvine, CA
MPSF Volleyball Release 17
Tournament Central
Friday, May 1
MPSF Championship:
No. 1 seed UC Irvine 3, No 3 seed Pepperdine 1
(25-23, 21-25, 25-23, 25-23)
Live Video Stream
Championship Stats
Recap Courtesy of UCI
UC Irvine captured its third MPSF championship with a 3-1 (25-23, 21-25, 25-23, 25-23) win over Pepperdine at the Bren Events Center Friday. With the win, UCI is the MPSF's automatic qualifier to the NCAA Championship held at Stanford next week. The NCAA selection show will air tomorrow (May 2) at 10:00 a.m. on NCAA.com. Four automatic conference bids go to UC Irvine (MPSF), Penn State (EIVA), Loyola (MIVA) Pfeiffer (Conference Carolinas) plus two at-large bids. The top two seeds get a bye in to the semifinals Thursday (May7) with the four remaining teams competing in two play-in matches on Tuesday (May 5).
Selection show link - http://www.ncaa.com/live/player?vid=2015/1966&date=2015/05/02
The Anteaters improve to 3-0 in MPSF title matches and 28-4 overall. The 28 wins is second most in school history, one behind the 2007 squad's record of 29. The Anteaters extend their winning streak to 10, which is the longest of the season. UCI was led by Tournament Most Valuable Player Zack La Cavera with a career-high 26 kills. Libero Michael Brinkley and middle blocker Andrew Benz were also named to the All-Tournament Team. Brinkley had six digs, while Benz recorded eight kills and five total blocks.
Outside hitter Tamir Hershko added 14 kills and outside hitter Travis Woloson posted a careerand match-best 13 digs. Setters Michael Saeta and Roberto Frazzoni each totaled 26 set assists with Saeta firing a pair of aces. Middle blocker Jason Agopian also tallied eight kills in the win.
Josh Taylor led Pepperdine with 23 kills and six digs followed by Parker Kalmbach with 12 kills and eight digs and Scott Rhein with 10 kills. Setter Matt West recorded 45 set assists and a team-high nine digs.
UCI held 16-12 lead before the Waves rallied back tie the set at 17 all and took a 20-19 lead on a Matt Tarantino ace. Kills by Parker Kalmback and Josh Taylor gave Pepperdine the 22-20 lead but the Anteaters answered with a kill by Andrew Benz and an ace by Reid Dominquez. The teams would trade points before back to back kills by Tamir Hershko ended the set 25-23 for UCI.
Pepperdine hit a blistering .632 (13-1-19) and won the second set 25-21. A service error and a UCI attack that sailed long put the Waves ahead 15-12.UCI would get as close as 19-17, but Pepperdine would score the next three, 22-17. The Anteaters hit .435 (15-5-23), but it wasn't enough to contain the red hot Waves.
Pepperdine jumped out to quick 4-1 lead in the third set and controlled most of the match, leading 19-16. The Anteaters would go on 5-2 run capped by a Hershko kill to tie the set at 21-21. Following a Pepperdine kill, UCI used a kill by La Cavera, an ace by Michael Saeta and a block by Hersko and Jason Agopian to get to set point 24-22. The teams would each have a service error to help the Anteaters to a 25-23 victory. Unlike the second set the teams struggled offensively in the third with UCI hitting .200 (12-6-30) and Pepperdine .125 (9-5-32).
The teams remained close in the fourth set until UCI scored three straight, the last a kill by Agopian to gain the 17-13 advantage. Pepperdine scored twice as UCI held match point to draw within 24-23, but Agopian knocked down the match winner with a kill in the middle.
2015 MPSF All-Tournament Team
Micah Christenson, USC
Siki Zarkovic, Hawaii
Brennan Anderson, Pepperdine
Josh Taylor, Pepperdine
Michael Brinkley, UCI
Andrew Benz, UCI
Zack La Cavera, UCI (MVP)
Thursday, Apr. 30
MPSF Semifinal # 1:
No. 3 seed Pepperdine 3, No. 2 seed Hawaii 1
(21-25 25-22, 26-24, 25-16)
Semifinal # 1 Stats
Recap By Roger Horne, Pepperdine
Josh Taylor powered down a match-high 22 kills to lead the Pepperdine men's volleyball team to a four-set victory over Hawaii in the semifinals of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament on Thursday night.The fifth-ranked and third-seeded Waves improved to 24-5 on the season with the 21-25, 25-22, 26-24, 25-16 victory over the third-ranked and second-seeded Rainbow Warriors (24-6). Pepperdine will play in Friday night's tournament final at 7 p.m. in the Bren Events Center against the winner of tonight's second match between UC Irvine and USC. "We played well enough to win, and now it's on to the next match," Pepperdine Coach Marv Dunphy said. "You always hear how important serve and receiving is, and it is. When we sustained our serves, our block defense was good and we got some points." Taylor (Honolulu, Hawaii/Punahou School), a senior outside hitter, hit .417 (22-7-36) on the night and also had eight digs. Senior opposite Parker Kalmbach (Coto de Caza, Calif./Tesoro HS) contributed 14 kills, seven digs and five blocks. Both middle blockers were highly effective. Senior Matt Tarantino (Van Nuys, Calif./Alemany HS) had eight kills and six blocks while hitting .545 (8-2-11). Fellow senior Nikola Antonijevic (Buffalo Grove, Ill./Stevenson HS) moved into the starting lineup at the last minute and posted six kills, a match-high seven blocks and a .455 hitting percentage (6-1-11).Senior setter Matt West (Seattle, Wash./Shorewood HS) had 50 assists and six blocks, while senior libero Brennan Anderson (Newport Beach, Calif./Corona del Mar HS/Ohio State) added a match-high 11 digs.
MPSF Semifinal # 2:
No. 1 seed UC Irvine 3, No. 4 seed USC 2
(22-25, 25-17, 25-23, 16-25, 15-11)
Semifinal # 2 Stats
Recap By Tim Tessalone, USC
Zack La Cavera, the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Player of the Year, had 25 kills and 13 digs to lead the No. 2-ranked UC Irvine men's volleyball team to a wild 22-25, 25-17, 25-23, 16-25, 15-11 win over No. 8 USC in an MPSF Tournament semifinal match on Thursday (April 30) in front of 2,835 fans at UCI's Bren Center. It was the fifth consecutive 5-set match that the teams have played against each other, dating to last season. All 3 meetings in 2015 went 5 sets. UC Irvine, the tourney's top seed, improved to 27-4 overall while winning its ninth straight match (and the 18th of its past 19). The Anteaters had split a pair of matches against the Trojans earlier this season, with the loss coming in Irvine. USC, the tourney's No. 4 seed, ended its season with a 19-9 overall record. Coming into the night, the Trojans had won 8 of their last 9 matches and 10 of their past 13. USC is now 8-3 in 5-set matches this year (a school record for 5-set matches and 5-set wins in a season). UCI now advances to the MPSF final match at home at 7 p.m. on Friday (May 1) against No. 5 Pepperdine, the tourney's third seed. The Waves defeated No. 3 Hawaii, 21-25, 25-22, 26-24, 25-16, in the other semifinal match. UC Irvine outhit USC, .257 to .222, and had more digs (54 to 42), but USC had the advantage in blocks (9.0 to 6.0). Alex Slaught and Andy Benesh each had 11 kills for USC, with Benesh hitting .625 and adding 7 blocks. Larry Tuileta and Cristian Rivera each had 8 kills, with Tuileta also getting 9 digs. Tamir Hershko added 15 kills for UCI, while Jason Agopian had 9 kills and Andrew Benz had 8 kills (hitting .583) and 5 blocks. Michael Brinkley had 19 digs.