UC Irvine Celebrates 2007 National Championship Team On Friday
April 06, 2017 | Men's Volleyball
IRVINE, Calif. -- UC Irvine will celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the 2007 men's volleyball NCAA Championship on Friday (Apr. 7) when the Anteaters host Stanford at 7:00 p.m. in the Bren Events Center. Buy Tickets
HIGHLIGHTS OF 2007
UC Irvine won the program's first national title on May 5, 2007 with a 3-1 win over IPFW at the NCAA Championship in Columbus, Ohio.
Senior Matt Webber, who led UCI with 22 kills in the championship match, was named tournament MVP. Seniors Jayson Jablonsky, Brian Thornton and David Smith were also named to the all-tournament team.
The Anteaters were 17-5 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, finishing third in the regular season before winning their first MPSF Tournament with 3-2 wins over Hawaii, BYU and Pepperdine.
UCI set a single-season school record for wins in its 29-5 season.
The team was honored at a White House reception in Washington, D.C.
Smith, who led the nation with a school-record hitting percentage of .559, earned All-America first-team honors. Jablonsky, Thornton and Webber were named to the second team.
Smith was also named first team All-MPSF, Jablonsky and Webber were second-team honorees, while Thornton, Aaron Harrell and sophomore Brent Asuka were third-team selections.
Seven men's volleyball players earned Scholar-Athlete honors that year.
RELIVING THE RUN
After a tough loss in the semifinals of the 2006 National Championships, the 2007 squad was poised to make a run in a highly competitive MPSF field.
The Anteaters had won 10 straight before two consecutive five-game losses at Pepperdine and at UCLA dropped the Anteaters to No. 3 in the national rankings and third in the MPSF at the beginning of April. UCI would bounce back to win the final two regular season matches and end with a 17-5 MPSF record which was third in the standings.
No. 3 UCI hosted sixth-seeded and ninth-ranked Hawaii in a MPSF quarterfinal match at Crawford Court to start its playoff run. The Anteaters had to rally from two games down to defeat Hawaii, 3-2 (26-30, 27-30, 30-23, 30-22, 15-11). UCI's quarterfinal win over Hawaii was only the second post-season victory in school history.
The nail-biting continued as UCI beat No. 2 BYU in five sets after battling back from a 2-1 deficit (30-19, 28-30, 27-30, 30-27, 15-10) in the MPSF semifinal match at Firestone Fieldhouse.
UCI's five game magic was alive and well as the Anteaters beat No. 1 Pepperdine 3-2 (27-30, 24-30, 30-28, 30-28, 16-14) in Malibu to capture the program's first MPSF Championship title. The Waves held a 13-11 advantage in the fifth set before a Pepperdine service error was followed by a kill by Taylor Wilson and another from Jayson Jablonsky to give UCI the 14-13 edge. A Pepperdine kill tied the score (14-14) before a Jablonsky kill and a Pepperdine attack failed, giving UCI the game, match, championship and automatic bid in to the NCAAs.
The Anteaters would travel to St. John Arena in Columbus, OH and opened the NCAA quest against the team that handed them the loss in 2006, Penn State. UCI beat the Nittany Lions, 3-1 (30-25, 30-22, 26-30, 30-23) in the semifinal match behind 19 kills from Matt Webber.
IPFW would upset No. 1 Pepperdine in their semifinal to meet UC Irvine in the championship match. The Anteaters would win its first men's volleyball national title with a 3-1 (30-24, 24-30, 30-23, 30-28) victory over the Mastadons.
In the critical fourth set, UCI opened a 21-18 lead only to watch the Mastodons rally and tie the score at 26-26 on a block. A David Smith kill gave UCI the 28-27 advantage before a Matt Webber kill put the Anteaters up 29-27. An Anteater service error delayed match-point as the final Mastodon serve sailed long crowning UCI the champions, 30-28.
Tournament Most Valuable Player Matt Webber led all players with 22 kills, hitting .457. Jayson Jablonsky recorded 18 kills, while David Smith had 13 kills and a team high four blocks. Middle blocker Aaron Harrell hit .600 (10-1-15) and setter Brian Thornton tallied 59 assists and six digs.
It was UCI's first national championship since the men's water polo team took the crown in 1989.
The Anteaters ended the season 29-5 overall, the most wins in school history and the most in the country that year.
A campus celebration would follow to honor the newly crowned champions.
