Irvine’s surprise win was mixed blessing

By Amanda Fletcher
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

PALO ALTO “”mdash; Alanis Morisette couldn’t have come up
with a more ironic situation.

All the No. 3 Bruins wanted was a third or fourth seed and home
court advantage for the first round of playoffs. Going into the
final weekend of Mountain Pacific Sports Federation matches, UCLA
had good chances of getting both.

Better yet, UCLA was in the driver’s seat. All the Bruins
had to do was split their games with No. 5 Stanford on Friday and
No. 10 University of the Pacific on Saturday.

But Thursday night brought an unexpected twist of events.

With all the fury of a tornado, No. 8 UC Irvine stormed into
Maples Pavilion and when the dust cleared, they had defeated
Stanford in a startling three-game sweep.

The Cardinal loss effectively clinched home court advantage for
their next opponent, UCLA.

So the Bruins were granted their first wish without having to
lift a finger. From here on in, it should have been clear skies and
smooth sailing. UCLA would put away Stanford, avenging their March
9 loss, and then cruise past UOP into playoffs.

But what the Bruins weren’t prepared for was the fire and
intensity Stanford bounced back with. Behind the hitting duo of
sophomore Curt Toppel and junior Marcus Skacel, the Cardinal used
the energy of their home crowd to sweep the Bruins in 85
minutes.

“We try every match to come in mentally prepared,”
Stanford senior setter Josh Lukens said. “In Irvine we
weren’t so we had to turn it around going into UCLA.

“It was a mental game beating UCLA. Coming back to our
home court, we knew we had to perform.”

Skacel emphasized the fact that their loss to UCI gave them the
wake-up call it took to beat UCLA.

“It really helped to get killed by a team we
should’ve beat,” he said. “It took a lot of heart
to come back and beat UCLA.”

The win made Stanford the only team to defeat UCLA twice in the
conference season. Four other teams had previously beat the Bruins
““ Long Beach, USC, BYU and Hawaii ““ but UCLA came back
and got each of them the second time around.

Now, guess who UCLA plays in the first round.

Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think?

“¢bull; “¢bull; “¢bull;

The seedings for the first round of MPSF play have been
announced. They are as follows: No. 1 BYU vs. No. 8 UCI; No. 2 LBSU
vs. No. 7 Pepperdine; No. 3 UCLA vs. No. 6 Stanford; and No. 4
Hawaii vs. No. 5 USC.

All the higher seeds will host the lower seeds this weekend.
After the first round, the highest seed remaining will host the
MPSF semifinal and final matches next week.

If UCLA beats Stanford, the Bruins will play the winner of the
Long Beach or Pepperdine game.