Defending national champs begin postseason

WHO: UC Irvine vs. USC.

WHAT: Mountain Pacific Sports Federation men’s volleyball tournament play-in match.

WHEN: Tonight at 7.

WHERE: Crawford Court at UCI.

BREAKDOWN: A disappointing loss at Stanford in the regular-season finale dropped the defending national champion Anteaters (15-14) to the No. 7 tournament seed, forcing them to meet No. 8-seeded USC (13-15) for the right to advance to Saturday’s quarterfinals.

No. 8-ranked UCI has defeated the No. 11-ranked Trojans twice this season and has won seven straight over a USC program being rebuilt by assistant and recruiting coordinator John Hawks, who held the same duties at UCI from 2003-06. Bill Ferguson is the USC head coach, in his second season.

UCI beat USC, 30-28, 30-26, 27-30, 30-24, on Jan. 25 at USC, and swept the Trojans, 30-28, 30-26, 30-22, at home on Feb. 8.

If victorious, UCI would visit No. 2-seeded and No. 3-ranked BYU (23-4) for a Saturday quarterfinal. BYU shared the MPSF regular-season crown with Long Beach State.

UCI Coach John Speraw cited improved passing, blocking and setting as primary reasons why the Anteaters have won four of their last six matches, including upsets of Long Beach State as well as third-place Cal State Northridge.

UCI, with four freshman starters, is led by junior opposite Jon Steller (352 kills) and junior libero Brent Asuka (287 digs).

USC is paced by 6-foot senior Juan Figueroa (408 kills) and 6-8 freshman Troy Murphy (396 kills).

“It’s a tough road, no question,” Speraw said of the play-in match and potential road trip to Provo. “With a young team, however, having to play matches is OK [the top two teams in the regular-season standings get byes into the semifinals]. Ideally, you wouldn’t want to go to BYU, because that’s a tough place to go win, especially when you are starting four freshmen who have never been [to Provo] before.

“That is a huge uphill battle for us, but we’ve got tot take care of the Trojans, before we start worrying about that.”

The MPSF Tournament champion earns an automatic berth into the four-team NCAA Tournament, while an at-large bid also typically goes to one additional MPSF team. UCI would have to win the tournament title, which it did last season, to advance to its third straight Final Four.

— Barry Faulkner