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Ruling helps UCI rule rival

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UC Irvine women’s volleyball coach Ashlie Hain did something this week that blue-state voters would love to accomplish: She turned back the clock.

Hain successfully protested an official’s ruling and essentially erased what had been a loss to Long Beach State on Sept. 24.

The match, the first meeting in conference play between the two Black and Blue rivals, was ruled a no-contest by the NCAA in early October, Hain said.

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After considering the matter for about a month, Big West Conference officials ruled that the match would be replayed from the point an official incorrectly penalized UCI for what he believed to be an illegal substitution.

Hain learned Sunday that the replay would commence on Tuesday at UCI.

The Anteaters, who subsequently had upset the 49ers in five sets on Oct. 28 at the Pyramid, rallied from a 10-4 deficit in the fifth set on Tuesday to once again prevail. The conference sweep of Long Beach is the first for UCI since 2003, when Hain was the ‘Eaters’ junior setter.

The rare season sweep of Long Beach lifts UCI (11-17, 6-8 in conference) into a fifth-place tie with UC Davis, which UCI visits on Saturday at 7 p.m. With two conference matches left, Hain said her team is playing for a chance to finish in the upper half of the nine-team conference.

For Long Beach State, its futility against a sub-.500 team is indeed costly. The 49ers (17-10, 11-3) are two matches behind No. 14-ranked Hawaii (20-5, 13-1), which tops the Big West standings. Long Beach State split against the Rainbow Wahine this season, but likely will have to settle for second place.

“It’s a big positive, and much-needed for a team that has had a lot of highs [sweeping then-No. 7-ranked USC on Aug. 27 at the Galen Center] and lows [two five-set losses to seventh-place Cal State Northridge] this season,” Hain said. “Going forward, having an opportunity to finish in the upper half of the conference would be awesome for us.”

The initial controversy began with UCI leading, 20-18, in the second set, after having won the first set on Sept. 24. At that point, an official ruled that UCI had made an illegal substitution a few points prior. The ruling deducted two points from UCI and awarded one to Long Beach, giving the 49ers a 19-18 edge in a set they eventually won, on their way to a five-set triumph.

“We knew we had made the sub correctly and we knew the play-by-play [record being kept at the scorer’s table], and the video of the match would show that,” Hain said. “I protested the call and told the official that we could prove the call was incorrect.”

By protesting, Hain earned the right to do just that, and a call from the conference head of officials two days later indicated that Hain had, in fact, been proved correct. The conference officiating head then referred the matter to the NCAA, which ruled relatively quickly in UCI’s favor.

The matter was returned to the conference, which would ultimately decide how to implement a fix.

The replay option was chosen, giving Hain an opportunity to announce to her players on Monday that they would be playing Long Beach State the following night for the right to change history.

“My players and even some fans had been asking me what was going on with the [upheld protest],” Hain said. “When I said, ‘Hey, we’re playing Long Beach on Tuesday], the girls were really excited. We know that team really well, so it didn’t take much preparation. It’s a good rivalry, so it’s always fun to play Long Beach. To get to play them three times in one season is pretty fun, so I didn’t have any complaints about it.”

Hain said the process got it right.

“We were put in a really bad position in that second set the first time around, because of that call,” Hain said. “Ultimately, I believe we would have won that second set, just like we did this time, because points were deducted from us at 20-18. In a game to 25 that makes a huge difference. I just felt like it was all justified and the right thing happened in this particular situation. We shouldn’t be getting things wrong like this at this level.”

Ironically, the willingness to battle long odds, such as the chances of winning a protest involving an official’s ruling, was just what helped the Anteaters prevail after trailing, 10-4, in the fifth set on Tuesday.

“That was pretty impressive,” Hain said of the comeback in the decisive set. “One of the things I talk to the team about is that we want to be described as a team that fights. And I think that [fifth-set rally] was a shining example of that. Hopefully, that shows the younger kids why you never give up and why you play every point hard, and the same way, because there is always a chance.”

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