Greetings from Irvine, California, USA!
Photo taken on Saturday, May 2, 2009.
Over the past three weeks, college men’s volleyball had both the regional conference tournaments and the national championship. In the conference quarterfinals, the 1st-ranked UC Irvine Anteaters beat the 8th-ranked UCLA Bruins (3-1) while my other alma mater 5th-ranked USC Trojans defeated the 4th-ranked Stanford Cardinals (3-2). This meant that my two schools would face one another in a semifinal match.
As the top team in their conference, UC Irvine earned home court advantage throughout tournament play and would host the last two rounds of matches. At the campus’ Bren Event Center I watched the 2nd-ranked Pepperdine Waves defeated the 3rd-ranked Cal State Northridge Gauchos (3-1) in the first semifinal. Next was Anteaters vs. Trojans. The match was a 3-game sweep, the victor was USC and I was shocked.
Two nights later I watched the regional finals: Pepperdine vs. USC. The match lasted the maximum five games and the last one went pass the 15 points needed to win because of the 2-point lead rule. Final score was 21-19 and the Trojans beat the Waves.
The national championship was held in Smith Fieldhouse at Utah’s Brigham Young University. Despite hosting, BYU was not competing, its team eliminated in the regional quarterfinals. The three conference winners were the 4th-seeded Ohio State Buckeyes, the 3rd-seeded USC Trojans and the 2nd-seeded Penn State Nittany Lions. Also the top-ranked team nationally, the 1st-seeded UC Irvine Anteaters received the wildcard spot.
In the semifinal matches, Trojans defeated Lions (3-1) while Anteaters defeated Buckeyes (3-0). USC and UC Irvine would be having a rematch but it was not a repeat of the Trojan sweep. The finals lasted a full five games with USC taking games 1 & 3 and Irvine taking games 2 & 4. Game 5? Cable network ESPN broadcasted the matches and, watching at home alone, I yelled “YES!” as the winning point was made. Anteaters won, earning its second national championship in three years!
Soon after I was on the phone talking with a friend. Because I had gone to both UC Irvine and USC, he asked whom I really wanted to win. With the Trojans dominant in football and the Anteaters not even competing in that sport, USC has me as a pigskin fan but UC Irvine has me for volleyball. Also I preferred the ‘Eaters to win both the regional and national titles, but if forced to split the two, this year’s results – conference champs Trojans, national champs Anteaters – reflect my own choices.
Slightly blurry this week’s photo shows the Trojans with their conference trophy. Mostly glass and hard to see, it’s in the lower middle of the shot. FIGHT ON, USC!
Angelo
