Setup Man

UC Irvine’s rise up the national men’s volleyball rankings is going just as the Anteater coaching staff planned it. Well, sort of.

Irvine is ranked ninth in the American Volleyball Coaches Assn. poll, its second-highest ranking in school history.

The Anteaters (9-10, 5-7) have won six of their last seven matches--including a March 17 victory over No. 6 Pepperdine--heading into this week’s Mountain Pacific Sports Federation matches against No. 2 Hawaii (15-3, 9-2), tonight and Saturday at 7 p.m. at Irvine.

And all this developed after Irvine lost a top player to injury, moved a top prospect to a different position and found an unexpected leader.

Meet Todd Steinert, a 6-foot-2 fifth-year senior who is the team’s starting setter. Steinert transferred from top-ranked Brigham Young this season, so he’s the new kid on the block. And on this young team, he sticks out, considering he’s 24 and married. His teammates call him “Grandpa.”

“They call me Weinke too,” Steinert said, referring to Chris Weinke, Florida State’s 28-year-old Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback.

Next season as some of his teammates prepare to move into another dorm or apartment, Steinert hopes to move into the international business field.

“It’s funny at BYU, my friends are all the same age as me,” Steinert said. “In fact, I’m still kind of young.”

But not with the Anteaters, who have 10 freshmen and sophomores on the roster. Steinert is one of only two seniors, joining Ty Loomis, a second-year starter.

“We finally got one of those 24-year-old seniors of our own,” Irvine Coach Charlie Brande said. “He’s extremely charismatic and he does add maturity. When things go bad, he’s the first to see a silver lining and encourages the guys that they still can come back and win.

“That maturity is key.”

Steinert spent years maturing at BYU, but he got tired of sitting on the bench for the Cougars. So he returned home, going from El Toro High to Provo, Utah, to . . . Bogota, Colombia?

“I went on a two-year mission to Colombia and it was a great experience,” Steinert said. “I really came to love the people there.”

But Steinert did have one frightening experience.

On a night where political tensions rose between Colombia and the U.S., Steinert said U.S missionaries were threatened and he was forced to fly out of the city of Bucaramanga.

Steinert’s departure from BYU wasn’t nearly as dramatic.

With only one season of eligibility remaining and facing the likelihood of sitting behind All-American setter Hector Lebron, Steinert looked for other options.

He didn’t have to look far.

Todd’s sister Lesli, who was also a standout setter at El Toro High, is married to Paul Smolinski, UC Irvine’s golf coach. One phone call led to another and . . .

“I just didn’t want to sit on the bench at BYU,” Steinert said. “I knew I could play at this level. I knew guys [at Irvine] that were good.

“I wasn’t sure how the team would respond to me. But the team has been amazing. They embraced me almost immediately. It only took me a couple of weeks to feel like one of the guys.”

But Steinert was one of the guys after someone else’s job. The heir apparent at setter was 6-foot-4 sophomore Jarrett Jensen.

“At first I was apprehensive about Todd coming, out of loyalty to Jensen,” said UCI assistant coach Jason Bilbruck. “We recruited Jarrett as a setter and I thought he could be one of the better setters in our conference.

“But the whole fall, the two were nip and tuck. Todd has a good feel and an understanding for the game and he’ll make a good coach someday. He won the job because of his poise.”

Steinert showed some of that Jan. 26, when Irvine upset No. 7 USC in five games.

Steinert had 51 assists, 10 digs and six blocks in the 29-31, 30-23, 34-32, 36-38, 15-12 victory at USC, giving Irvine its first win of the season.

“After that match Todd came up to me and gave me a big hug,” Brande said, “and he told me, ‘This is why I came to UCI, to get some wins like this.’ ”

Irvine is 9-5 since that victory, and part of that success is surprising, considering the Anteaters lost Loomis to a season-ending leg injury.

“I was blown away when Ty got hurt,” Steinert said. “He was playing the best on the team at the time. We played UCLA [Feb. 21] two days after he got hurt and we didn’t really know what we had.”

Irvine had enough to beat then top-ranked UCLA in the first game, 30-26, before eventually falling in four games.

“After that first game, we found out we could play without Ty,” Steinert said. “Without having to rely on Ty so much, we actually have gained confidence.”

And Brande said Loomis is one of the team’s biggest cheerleaders.

He’s watched other players step up, like Erick Helenihi, a junior middle blocker who earned national player of week honors one week. Sophomore Monte Tucker has grown into a “go-to guy,” Steinert said, and Jensen has also found a new home.

The sophomore who was once the Anteaters’ setter of the future is now the starting opposite of the present. It’s a new position he might hold onto for the rest of his career since Irvine is recruiting two community college setters.

“Jarrett could possibly turn out to be one of the better hitters in this conference,” Bilbruck said. “He hits the heck out of the ball.”

Said Steinert: “It’s what I like about our team. We have all found our little niche. We’ve grown into those roles, and when we play those roles well, we win. We can play with anybody.”