When the UC Irvine men’s volleyball team arrived in Honolulu on Tuesday, the Anteaters were greeted by sunshine and the news of the fire at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. It literally hit home for UCI outside hitter Aaron Koubi, the graduate student who was born and raised in the south of France.
“That hit us when we landed,” Anteaters senior setter Dante Chakravorti said. “He called his parents and they talked.
“Tonight, he played great, set the tone for us in Set 1.”
Koubi was near-perfect Thursday for the third-seeded Anteaters in the Big West tournament opener at the Stan Sheriff Center, hitting a season-high .556 in the 26-24, 25-15, 25-14 sweep of sixth-seeded UC San Diego. He had just one hitting error, that coming midway through Set 3, and finished with a match-high 11 kills after 90 minutes.
The victory sets up a rematch of last year’s Big West semifinal between UCI (18-10) and second-seeded Hawaii (25-2), tonight’s semifinal scheduled for 7:30 p.m. The 5 p.m. match has top-seeded Long Beach State (25-2), the defending tournament and national champion, meeting fourth-seeded UC Santa Barbara (18-9).
The Gauchos outlasted the Matadors 25-16, 25-27, 26-28, 25-13, 15-9 in Thursday’s second match. UCSB got 15 kills from freshman hitter Ryan Wilcox (Punahou) and 14 from senior hitter Corey Chavers. The Gauchos outblocked CSUN (13-14) 16.5-3. Junior hitter Ksawery Tomsia finished with a match-high 19 kills for the Matadors, who got 14 from senior hitter Dimitar Kalchev.
The Warriors swept the Anteaters twice when the teams met in Irvine on March 1-2. That set off a UCI slide in which the Anteaters went 2-8, including 1-5 after losing sophomore hitter Joel Schneidmiller to an elbow injury.
With Schneidmiller back, UCI is 3-0 heading into tonight. The 2018 Big West freshman of the year added 10 kills against the Tritons.
“I don’t know if we’re any better than when we last played Hawaii — we’re never really done evolving,” UCI coach David Kniffin said. “Our goal is to get better every game, and we haven’t stopped searching to be our best.
“Looking at the offensive efficiency of Hawaii (.445), they’re going to reset the NCAA record that Long Beach had last year (.375). We’re looking to slow them down and find our groove here and there.”
The Anteaters found it late in Set 1 against the Tritons, who led the whole way until being caught at 24. UCI used three of its 12 blocks in holding off two set points and closing it out on a 4-0 run.
UCSD hung tough, but UCI was tougher, particularly from the service line, where senior opposite Karl Apfelbach and sophomore hitter Patrick Sohacki camped out for substantial service stints in Sets 2 and 3. Helping their cause was the 7-foot presence of junior middle Scott Stadick, who was in on eight blocks, four of them solo.
The Tritons got seven kills from Kauai-born Wyatt Harrison, the son of former Warrior Todd Harrison. UCSD’s lone senior, hitter Xander Jimenez, was in on all three of the team’s blocks.
When asked how he saw tonight’s Hawaii-UCI match, Tritons coach Kevin Ring said, “I think it will be very competitive. I was impressed by Hawaii when they were at our place. They were very business-like.
“Hawaii is at home and will be ready to go. But I like UC Irvine as well.”
Kniffin thought Koubi handled the tragedy in France well.
“I think the hardest thing was to see France get hit again,” said Kniffin, who visited Notre Dame once in 2006. “I thought Koubi wore it well. It’s an iconic part of France, an iconic part of the (Catholic) church. It hits us all. A beautiful church in a beautiful city.”
