Anteaters earn bye

IRVINE — Players, coaches, students, staff and supporters showed up in numbers at the UC Irvine Student Center Monday, to witness the televised announcement of the NCAA men’s soccer tournament pairings.

But UCI Coach George Kuntz, whose Anteaters earned the program’s first NCAA berth by claiming the inaugural Big West Tournament crown Saturday night before an Anteater Stadium-record crowd of 1,832, said he believed several others were there in spirit.

“This is for all the alumni, who built the program, were close, but didn’t get this chance,” said Kuntz, whose 14th season at the UCI helm will resume Nov. 25 at home at 7 p.m. against either UCLA (10-4-6) or Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (10-5-6), who meet in Saturday’s first round in Westwood. “We’re going to do our best to represent those guys well.”

Some of those guys witnessed the 2006 pairings announcement with slack jaws and welling tears, as the Anteaters were surprisingly denied an at-large bid after a then-school-record 13 victories.

One of those players was Brad Evans, whose Columbus Crew will meet the New York Red Bulls in the MLS Cup Saturday at the Home Depot Center in Carson.

“I got a call from Brad Evans on Sunday,” said Kuntz, whose Anteaters (14-1-6) are the No. 14 seed in the 48-team field, ranked No. 8 nationally and No. 1 in the Far West Region by the national coaches assn. “I didn’t answer, ‘Hello, Brad.’ I answered, ‘This one’s for you.’ He was on that team and he was in that room when we were snubbed.

“[Evans] just laughed and said ‘Coach, I’m so proud of all you guys.’ ”

The first-round bye and a home game were not unexpected, but were also not a given, said Kuntz, who called the program’s initial NCAA berth a defining moment in his 20-year college coaching career.

“Based on everything we’ve been through, we were just glad to see ourselves on the board,” Kuntz said. “We knew we were on the board [by virtue of the conference tournament crown, after winning the Big West regular-season title, as well], but to have a first-round bye is tremendous.”