Match report: UC Irvine vs. BYU

What a huge match this is. And as of a few weeks ago, UC Irvine now stream all their home matches. It’s not as good as BYU’s webcasts (only Hawaii can hold a candle to BYU’s webcasts…most schools don’t try and wouldn’t have the money to even if they wanted to), but it’s something. And it’s watchable. And I missed the first match between these two teams earlier this year, in Provo, so I wasn’t about to miss this one.

It was a pretty good atmosphere in the arena in Irvine. BYU got a loud cheer when they were introduced — seems like they traveled a lot of fans. But of course, Irvine got a louder cheer. You couldn’t really tell from the camera angle, but it seemed like the arena was pretty packed. Of immediate note was the fact that battered BYU middle blocker Russ Lavaja was back in the starting lineup for the Cougars.

Yeah, there was definitely some good energy in the gym. A right-side kill for Zack La Cavera, to bring the set to all of 2-2, got a huge cheer from the home crowd. Ben Patch‘s response got a pretty solid response from the BYU fans, too. It’s always so much more fun when people are excited. The Cougars took an early 2-point lead a 4-2, and it held steady through a long stretch of sideouts. Eventually the crowd seemed to settle in and didn’t roar to everything. And that’s good, too — save the big demonstrative reactions for the truly big moments. Does this paragraph seem self-contradictory? Deal with it. 😛

UCI drew it even at 9’s when BYU were called for a net violation. And from there, a lot more sideouts. You could tell how elite this match was just by looking at it — the tiniest of mistakes would make the difference, and be magnified ten fold. Colin Mehring and Kevin Tillie got UCI their first lead of the match with a right-side rejection of Taylor Sander, making it 13-12. Mehring then stuffed Sander on his own on the next ball to put the Anteaters up 14-12, and rather suddenly prompting BYU’s timeout. The Anteaters got another big block, this time on the left side as Ryan Boyce chose to feed Patch on the other pin, to go up three after the timeout. Finally, Josue Rivera got the Cougars the sideout, at the end of a very long rally, but the point difference stayed at 3 until Lavaja and Rivera scored a big block to close BYU back within a point at 18-17, which prompted the Anteaters’ timeout.

After a crazy long rally, Patch drew the Cougars even again with a right-side kill. The BYU team and the BYU fans were clearly excited about that. At 19-all, the Anteater offense kinda broke down, leading to a four hits call to give BYU their first lead of the match. UCI responded with two straight, including a Kevin Tillie-led double block to reclaim the lead at 21-20, and prompt BYU’s last timeout. La Cavera’s swing on 22-20 appeared to be just inside the back-right corner, but it was called out to give BYU the sideout. No matter, as Tillie got the Anteaters to set point at 24-22, beautifully finding the seam in the Cougar block. UCI got the set point on their first try to go up 1-0.

My connection blinked out a little at the outset of set 2, but suffice it to say it went to UCI pretty heavily. BYU burned their first timeout trailing 6-3, and then after the timeout Tillie came up with back-to-back service aces. Obviously not wanting to take his second timeout so soon, BYU coach Chris McGown brought in Phil Fuchs to sub for Sander, and I guess it broke up the momentum, because Tillie’s next serve went just long. But on 8-4, Tillie got the kill to put the Anteaters back up five, a pretty shocking deficit in a matchup of this caliber. The Cougars were undeterred, eating into the deficit and closing to within 12-10, on a right-side kill off the block and out, at UCI’s first timeout.

Jason Agopian got UCI the sideout and then Colin Mehring followed with a kill of his own to re-establish UCI’s larger cushion. Devin Young‘s serve at 14-11 was one of the worst I’ve ever seen, going outside the antenna on the left side and landing about five feet wide. Then again with Tillie on the service line, the Anteaters came up with another mini-run to go up five. Mehring and Tillie came up with an emphatic block on 17-13, prompting BYU’s last timeout. BYU got the sideout after the timeout, but UCI had the answer, and La Cavera’s ace put them up six at 20-14. BYU responded with a very nice run on Sander’s serve, and won the longest point of the match on the rally ending 21-19 with a right-side kill. The set choice seemed to catch the UCI defense by surprise, as it gave the hitter (I think it was Ben Patch, but I’m not positive) a 1-on-1. Their lead dwindled to two, UCI called the last timeout of the set.

Patch came up with another kill after the timeout to make it 21-20, this time beating a double block, and a “B-Y-U! B-Y-U!” chant broke out in the arena. Tillie kept the set from coming even with a big kill, and a “U-C-I! U-C-I!” chant broke out in response, drowning out that of the fans from Provo. Patch and Tillie continued trading kills. La Cavera was blocked at the net to make it 23-all, but he got his point back on the next rally to give UCI the first chance at set point. The right-side attack attempt went long, though the hitter and the crowd all clearly expected it would be in. Tillie got UCI the sideout at 25-24 for their next attempt at set point, and Sander’s hit went long to put the Anteaters up 2-0.

The energy in the arena as the second set neared its conclusion was just awesome. Both sides boisterously cheering on their men, and hanging on every moment. God, that’s great stuff.

The Cougars started the 3rd set very strongly, quite obviously not content to simply go softly into that good, good night. In a blink, they ran out to a 5-1 lead before UCI could rotate their best server, Tillie, to the line. True to form, Tillie brought the Anteaters back, to within a point, as his serving befuddled the Cougar reception. Only a jump-float into the net sided the Cougars out at 6-4. Sander came up with a kill from the pipe to make it 7-5, but the Anteater back row very nearly ran the ball down 40 feet away from the court. The defender who almost got there cleared the far end of the scorer’s table in stride — which got no reaction from the crowd — but it was just a little too far away from him. A double contact fault called on Boyce brought the set even at 7’s. UCI pulled ahead 10-8 at BYU’s timeout.

Jeremy Dejno‘s run on serve continued after the timeout, and he forced a BYU overpass that La Cavera didn’t fail to gobbled up. The next serve was an ace to put the Anteaters up four. Another de-facto timeout substitution occurred there, as McGown inserted Tyler Heap to take Boyce’s place at setter, but Dejno sure wasn’t bothered or iced as he came up with another ace to put UCI up five. When Tillie’s kill put the Anteaters up six, McGown had no real choice but to use up his last timeout. After seven straight points for UCI, Patch finally got the Cougars the sideout at 14-9. Boyce re-entered the match for Heap here. Tillie got the sideout right back for the Anteaters, and it looked like the Anteaters would roll.

But BYU got a very good run on serve from Lavaja, with a kill from Sander, a couple of big blocks, and an unforced error from UCI bringing them to within one at 19-18. Later two big kills from Patch put them up 23-22, and then they stunningly reached set point at 24-22 with a triple block against La Cavera. The “B-Y-U! B-Y-U!” chants rang out. UCI staved off the first but BYU converted the second for a rather stunning turnaround, and a 25-23 set win.

No doubt if this were a televised match, commentators would be taking the short break between sets 3 and 4 to talk about such things as momentum and the Anteaters staying in the game after a pretty terrible collapse. I don’t tend to buy in to such things. UCI surely knew coming into the 4th that they were 25 points away from victory, just as they were coming into the 3rd. The 3rd set comeback no doubt buoyed BYU’s confidence, though you might say they shouldn’t need it to be buoyed. And momentum’s only as good as the last rally.

And to be sure, UCI came out of the gates swinging in the 4th, with both Tillie and La Cavera coming up with emphatic kills to get the home crowd back into the match after they’d had the wind taken from their sails a bit with the result of the 3rd. Just as quickly, though, BYU ran it back even at 5’s, with a kill from Lavaja and a triple block spearheaded by him. Irvine responded with three in a row to go up 9-6, though it was on the strength of a wide hit by Lavaja and a bad set from Boyce. After a stretch of sideouts, BYU drew it even again at 12 after a kill for Patch and a rare unforced error off the hand of La Cavera. Mehring’s ace gave UCI the next two-point edge at 15-13.

It was short-lived; BYU came even again at 15, and then 16, and then 17. They actually took one on serve at 17’s, a rare unforced hitting error by Tillie, to take the slenderest of advantages. With serving sub Travis Woloson in the match, UCI got the point back with a double block led by Mehring and Stork. BYU called the first timeout of this frenetic slugfest of a 4th here, down just a single point at 19-18. The match reached 20 dead even. BYU took the big 2-point lead at 22-20 behind another unforced error by La Cavera and a kill from Lavaja. UCI subbed La Cavera out in favor of Connor Hughes here. UCI got the sideout with a kill from Dejno, and then a hitting from Patch was called out with no touch to make it 22-all — a race to 3 — at BYU’s timeout.

An attack error from Hughes, wide and no touch, put BYU up 23-22, and UCI very quickly called their last timeout. The Cougars remarkably got it to set point after the timeout with another Hughes hitting error. Mehring staved off the first for UCI with a kill from the middle, but BYU converted the second set point, sending us improbably to a 5th.

A contentious point happened on 2-1 in the 5th. Dejno’s left-side hit went off the block and out. The flagger ruled that it hit Dejno again on the way out, meaning point BYU. At first the point went to UCI, but the call was reversed. This was Dejno’s first hitting error of the match, on 18 swings. Rivera got the next point with a big kill to put BYU up 4-1 and force UCI’s timeout. Dejno got the Anteaters the sideout, but at this point, the BYU fans were cheering louder than the UCI fans. It was something to behold, let me tell you.

The UCI fans found something to…ahem…make noise about on 5-4, as a serve (didn’t catch who, and the ticker was obviously wrong) was ruled long. The boos were pretty loud. Just as quickly, the BYU fans drowned them out again, with Boyce and Lavaja stuffing Dejno to go up 7-4. BYU reached the halfway point first, at 8-5, behind a Jeremy Dejno service error.

Patch’s astonishing 33rd kill of the match (seriously, I did not use his name nearly enough in this rundown) was the first point after the side switch, giving BYU a cushy 4-point edge. UCI called time trailing 11-6, but the transformation was complete. I kind of lost track of who was scoring particular points, because my mouth was just completely agape the last few minutes of the match. It was a big triple block that finished it.

#2 BYU d. #1 UC Irvine (22-25, 24-26, 25-23, 25-23, 15-11)

Make no mistake — this is one of the worst collapses you’ll ever see. This is a catastrophic result for Irvine, coming on their home court no less.

This match was over. This match was OVER!! It was 19-14 in the 3rd. According to numbers crunched by one Rob Pettapiece, such a comeback as this has only a 3 percent chance of happening, assuming equally matched teams (which win probability always does, in all sports).

I am stunned. I am just completely stunned. I have to confess — I tuned out a little at that point. The match was over. Except nobody told BYU.

Ben Patch ended with an amazing 35 kills — apparently it’s a school record for a rally-scoring match — and the Cougars needed every last one of those as Taylor Sander had one of the worst matches of his career.  The Sandman hit negative with just 8 kills (pretty paltry for a full 5-set match) and 10 errors. Irvine actually out-blocked the Cougars 17.0-14.0, and likewise in aces 9-2, but BYU had a huge advantage in digs, 55-38. Offensive execution for both sides was pretty meager, well below both teams’ season averages in the low .200’s.

Tillie had a terrific match for the Anteaters, with 20 kills, on .295 hitting (which is actually below his average, but it’s fine), 5 blocks, 4 aces (on just 5 errors…that is outstanding serving), and 11 digs (just one off the total of libero Michael Brinkley). The errors piled up for Zack La Cavera, as he finished 15/8/41 for just .171.

BYU had better be a unanimous #1 in the nation on Monday, because this was an amazing performance. Yeah, they fell into that hole in the first place, that they had just a 3 percent winning probability, but they came all the freaking way back and won. It was historic stuff, and we may never again see the equal.

Make no mistake — if you watched this match, you witnessed history.