UCI besting Speraw’s Bruins

Former UC Irvine men’s volleyball coach John Speraw’s renowned five-year plan was validated when the Anteaters won the 2007 NCAA title, the program’s first of four, in Speraw’s fifth season as UCI head man.

Speraw also guided UCI to NCAA championships in 2009 and 2012, before leaving for UCLA after 10 seasons in Irvine.

At the time of his departure, many speculated he would return greatness to a storied UCLA program (19 NCAA crowns) that had slumped in the latter portion of legendary Coach Al Scates’ career (one NCAA title since 2000, that being 2006).

Some also foresaw a return to the chase pack for UCI.

The ’Eaters won the 2013 NCAA championship under first-year coach David Kniffin, a former UCI setter who was a Speraw assistant at UCI for five seasons (2007-2011). But Speraw received notable credit for that team of Speraw recruits.

But in the five years since Speraw, who also guided Team USA in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, UCI has continued to outperform UCLA, which will visit the Bren Events Center on Saturday at 7 p.m. for an MPSF Tournament quarterfinal match.

The No. 5-ranked ’Eaters are 19-6, 13-5 in regular-season conference play to finish fourth, and have won eight straight and 11 of their last 12 matches.

No. 6-ranked UCLA is 17-9, 10-8 to finish fifth in the MPSF.

In five seasons at the UCI helm, Kniffin is 100-49, including MPSF regular-season and tournament titles in 2015, when the ’Eaters were upset in the NCAA semifinals by eventual champion Loyola of Chicago.

UCLA, in five seasons under Speraw, is 94-52, with no MPSF regular-season or tournament titles, and one NCAA semifinal appearance (a loss to eventual champion Ohio State last season).

Kniffin’s ’Eaters are 7-5 in head-to-head clashes with Speraw’s Bruins, and are favored to top UCLA on Saturday, as they did in the 2015 MPSF quarterfinals.

UCI senior setter Michael Saeta, who was a redshirt freshman in 2013 and has seen the entire Kniffin run as head coach, said there was never concern within the program that there would be hard times following Speraw’s departure.

“I think there is reality in the fact that people who know Irvine buy stock in Irvine,” Saeta said. “There is some insider trading going on there. Speraw recruited me and I had opportunities to train under him during the summers [with USA Volleyball]. He’s a great coach and a phenomenal guy. He loves the game and he sees it really well.

“But we have Kniff, so I never saw any down-stepping or any transition that a lot of people may have seen [when Speraw left]. I really mean it when I say Irvine guys hold stock in Irvine guys. We know the type of people that we turn out. Even if we do not get the blue-chip athlete or the top recruit in every class, we’re going to get the guy who is going to compete and grow as a phenomenal player, and by the time he gets to his third, fourth or fifth year, he’s going to be a difference-maker.”

Road warriors

Saturday will mark only the third home match since February for UCI, which posted a 6-1 record in seven road matches over a 41-day span.

The marauding March has helped UCI surge in the late season, Saeta said.

“It was crazy, but really cool,” Saeta said of the trip that included a March 11 sweep at then No. 1-ranked Ohio State that snapped the defending NCAA champions’ 42-match winning streak. “Look at the men’s basketball NCAA Tournament and the way the top teams are on the road for a month at the end of the year, doing what they love, which is competing. It made you really feel like you were a professional athlete, because you were away from school, away from any connections you may have at home, and you’re completely 100% oriented to being a college volleyball player and winning.

“If you look at that trip to Ohio, where the NCAA championships will be held [at Ohio State in May], we gained a solid understanding of who we were and how we became a team, culturally, on that trip,” Saeta said. “We were able to get some phenomenal road victories, play good volleyball, and do it as an entire unit. There is just something about being on the road and getting those experiences.”

Thriving in five

UCI’s win over Pepperdine in the regular-season finale on Saturday improved the Anteaters to a remarkable 8-0 this season in five-set matches.

“When we get in those situations, we are resilient,” Saeta said. “We have that point-to-point mentality. Whether it’s the first set, the fourth set, or the fifth, we have the mindset that we aren’t going to take any points off and we aren’t going to let a team take it from us.

“It gives us confidence and, hopefully, I think it should put a little bit of awareness in opponents, because the reality is, we don’t want to lose and we’re not going to let [teams] have anything they don’t earn.”

barry.faulkner@latimes.com

Twitter: @BarryFaulkner5