Wed July 09, 2008
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UC Irvine Battles, But Falls Short In 3-1 Loss To BYU In MPSF PlayoffsApril 19, 2008
The Anteaters end the season 16-15 overall, while BYU, the second seed in the MPSF Tournament improves to BYU scored six unanswered early in game one to go up, 10-4 and that was all they needed as they took the first set 30-20. The Cougars hit a blistering .517, while the Anteaters hit just .111. BYU continued its hot hitting in game two as the Cougars hit .556 in a 30-22 victory. Ivan Perez added six kills. BYU used a 4-1 run to go up 14-11. BYU would never trail again as the Anteaters could get no close than two the rest of the way. BYU used an Anteater attack and service error to extend the lead to 23-20 and looked like they would close out the match but UCI rallied down 28-25 on kills by Aaron Harrell and Jon Steller followed by a Cougar attack error to tie the game at 28-28. Harrell fired an ace deep into the back corner then a kill by Taylor Wilson kept UCI alive, 30-28. The Cougars jumped out to a 9-5 advantage in game four on four UCI hitting errors. With the score tied 16-16, BYU rattled off three in a row to give the Cougars the 19-16 cushion. UCI would not go away as they closed to 23-22 on a Kevin Carroll kill then went ahead 24-23 on a pair of Cougar attack errors. Following a BYU timeout, Carroll knocked one off the block, 25-23. Another Anteater service error stopped UCI's momentum and BYU capitalized with a block to knot the score at 25-25. After a BYU service sailed long, Andrew Stewart's kill was followed by a UCI attack that went wide to give the Cougars the 27-26 lead. Another BYU block put the Cougars up 28-26. Carroll recorded another kill for UCI but the next UCI serve hit the net giving the Cougars match point, 29-26. Steller pounded a kill but Perez ended it with a kill off the block, 30-28. UCI was led by Taylor Wilson and Jon Steller with 12 kills each. Freshman outside hitter Kevin Carroll tallied nine kills and two blocks. Middle blockers Aaron Harrell and Kevin Wynne each added eight kills with Harrell rejecting a team-high four blocks. Libero Brent Asuka led the team with 11 digs. BYU's Ivan Perez led all players with 19 kills and 12 digs followed by Andrew Stewart who recorded 12 kills and a match-high eight blocks. Jonathan Charette had 11 kills, while Russell Holmes each added 10 kills and matched Stewart with the match-high eight total blocks. The Cougars out-blocked UCI, 14.5 and out-dug the Anteaters, 45-29. |
