Thanks to this year’s expanded field, UC Irvine got in and is now in the final

LOS ANGELES — Without the expansion to 12 teams for the National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championships this year, UC Irvine wouldn’t be one win away from a national title.

The Anteaters would have been sent home in the semifinals of the Big West tournament two weeks ago when they were swept by Long Beach State at Bren Events Center.

Instead of calling it a season, UCI has rallied with three straight wins at Pauley Pavilion, including a monumental upset of No. 1 seed UCLA in the regional final, to earn a third crack at Hawaii in Monday’s national final at 1 p.m.

UC Irvine (21-8) was one of the last of five at-large teams selected to the tournament, which was increased from two the previous year.

The third-place team from the Big West is now one victory away from a national championship, which seemed very unlikely after they were dominated by the Beach on their home floor.

“Well, we haven’t had to play Hawaii or Long Beach,” UC Irvine coach David Kniffin joked about UCI’s run to the national final. “I think the thing that has been the biggest change for us since we stepped into Pauley Pavilion is just our commitment to play between the whistles.”

UC Irvine’s Andrej Jokanovic, the Big West Freshman of the Year, had 18 kills to lead four Anteaters in double figures in a 25-19, 23-25, 27-25, 25-19 win over No. 4 seed Ball State in the first tournament semifinal on Saturday.

UCI’s balanced offensive attack was enough to turn away the Cardinals, who got a match-high 20 kills from senior outside hitter Patrick Rodgers.

The Anteaters’ run has included five-set victories over Penn State, the EIVA champion, and the MPSF champion Bruins.

Ball State, winner of the MIVA, got to the NCAA Final Four by beating Pepperdine in five sets.

Now UC Irvine has to deal with a Hawaii team it lost to twice in the Big West regular season, including in straight sets in the rematch on night two.

The Anteaters are 0-5 this season against the Big West’s top two teams, UH and Long Beach State.

“We are very aware that if there wasn’t tournament expansion, then we wouldn’t have been in a conversation for that (NCAA) first round. We wouldn’t have a chance to be here,” Kniffin said. “You put good enough teams out there and if we played this tournament over 10 times, it’s probably not three Big West teams going at it now in the Final Four, but because we’ve got a bigger field and volleyball is a funny game where every time the whistle blows, it ends in a point. Overall it is just a really cool moment.”

The Big West is guaranteed to have the national champion for the sixth time in eight years since the league added men’s volleyball in 2018.

UC Irvine won four national titles in seven years when John Speraw coached the team to three of them before Kniffin took over and won in his first season in 2013.

Hawaii is making its fifth trip to the NCAA final in the past seven seasons after making it four consecutive times from 2019 to ’23. No tournament was held during the COVID-19 year in 2020.