'Eaters swept by Cougars

PROVO, Utah — While the altitude wreaked havoc on their serving and, to some degree, their hitting, the No. 2-ranked UC Irvine men's volleyball team was thoroughly brought down to earth by a 30-21, 30-22, 30-27 loss to top-ranked BYU Friday night.

An overflow crowd of 5,753 at the Smith Fieldhouse witnessed a dominant Mountain Pacific Sports Federation victory for the Cougars (9-0, 5-0 in conference) and a humbling loss for the Anteaters (10-2, 5-2), who committed 20 service errors, hit a season-low .146 as a team, and were bested in the blocking department, 11-5 1/2 .

"We haven't played our best volleyball the last couple weeks, but tonight we were just dead terrible," UCI Coach John Speraw said after the Anteaters' second loss in three matches (both sweeps) after opening the season 9-0. "We didn't pass well, we served horribly and we couldn't hit the ball in the court."

Senior All-Americans Jayson Jablonsky and Matt Webber both hit .000 as the Anteaters had 27 errors and 41 kills in 96 attacks.

BYU, which Speraw has called the most physical team in America for its combination of height and athletic ability, opened the match like a squad that has won 27 of 28 games this season, including eight straight sweeps.

The Cougars scored five of their first 13 points on blocks, though Speraw said it was more a matter of poor execution by his hitters than anything special by the BYU net defenders.

"The stuff blocks they had that they earned were very rare," Speraw said. "At one point, our top four hitters were all hitting [a negative percentage]."

Speraw called timeouts, changed the lineup and even moved players to different positions. But, ultimately, the Anteaters found little success.

UCI's only lead in Game 1 was 1-0. It had leads of 3-0, 10-6 and 16-15 before succumbing in Game 2. And it led, 3-0 and 10-7 in the finale, and was tied, 19-19, before the Cougars sent their raucous home crowd home happy.

"I would have been pleased with a four-game win tonight, but I'm even happier with a sweep," BYU interim Co-coach Shawn Patchell said. "We started out poorly in the third game, but I give the guys credit for pushing through."

Battling the thinner air at altitude, which allows the ball to sail farther, UCI made nine service errors in the opening game and seven more in the second game.