Long Beach Quickly Eliminates UC Irvine

It took 12 years for UC Irvine to reach the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation men’s volleyball playoffs, but the Anteaters’ stay didn’t last very long.

In fact, it lasted less than an hour and a half.

Making their first playoff appearance in school history, the Anteaters ran into a Long Beach State team looking for revenge for a loss to Irvine earlier this season and fell, 15-7, 15-10, 15-6, in a first-round match Saturday night in front of 1,409 at the Pyramid.

Long Beach will play USC in the semifinals Thursday at Brigham Young in Provo, Utah.

Dave McKienzie, who led the No. 2-ranked 49ers (21-2) with 25 kills, said the March 31 loss to Irvine, which knocked his team from the No. 1 ranking, was all the motivation they needed.

“We weren’t losing tonight no matter what,” said McKienzie, a Huntington Beach High graduate. “It was embarrassing that we lost to them in the first place.”

McKienzie said post-match comments by Irvine’s Donnie Rafter served as an added spark.

“He said, ‘The freight train is coming through and you are on the tracks,’ ” McKienzie said. “I couldn’t believe he said that. I told all of my teammates that and we got fired up.”

Not that the 49ers needed to be fired up against Irvine (14-12), which was overwhelmed. The Anteaters had a lowly .174 hitting percentage for the match, including .077 in Game 3.

“You have to remember, they were in the [conference] semifinals last year, this is our first time in the playoffs,” Irvine Coach Charlie Brande said. “We didn’t play with poise and if you’re going to be lucky enough to beat that team twice in the same year, you can’t come into a big-game arena and be intimidated.”