UC Irvine tops USC, advances to men's volleyball final USC will host the NCAA men's volleyball Final Four for the first time. But the top-ranked Trojans could find themselves as only spectators. Second-ranked UC Irvine put the Trojans in that position on Thursday night by coming back from a two-set deficit to outlast USC, 24-26, 23-25, 25-16, 28-26, 15-9, in the semifinals of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament at the Galen Center. Irvine ended the Trojans' 18-match winning streak and advanced to Saturday's MPSF championship match against Stanford, a 25-21, 17-25, 25-19, 35-33 winner over Brigham Young. The winner of Saturday's match earns an automatic bid to the Final Four. The loser is regarded as the front-runner for an at-large berth. USC fell to 23-5 and now must hope that the NCAA selection committee makes the determination that its overall performance this season trumps that of the loser of the championship match. "We definitely made the committee's job difficult," said USC Coach Bill Ferguson, whose team lost for the first time since Feb. 3. Kevin Tillie, a junior outside hitter from France, had 23 kills to lead the Anteaters (23-5). USC won the first two games before Irvine came alive. "At the beginning of the third set, on the court, we said, 'We're really close, we have nothing to lose,'" Tillie said. The Anteaters had received a scare in the second game when Tillie limped off the court because of an apparent ankle injury. But he returned later and proved pivotal. Tillie, senior opposite Carson Clark and senior outside hitter Kevin Carroll powered Irvine to an easy third-game victory and then keyed an early run that gave the Anteaters a 5-0 lead in the fourth. The Trojans came back and tied the score, 24-24, on a kill by Tony Ciarelli and went ahead on a block by Robert Feathers. They had a chance to win the match but Steve Mochalski's serve went into the net. Carroll scored on a shot off the block and Tillie sent the match to a fifth game with an ace. Despite three service errors, the Anteaters jumped to an 8-6 lead in the fifth game, and Tillie and Clark helped them close it out. Senior outside hitter Ciarelli had 22 kills for USC. Brad Lawson had 17 kills, Brian Cook 16 and Steven Irvin 12 as Stanford advanced with a thrilling - and exhausting - victory in the fourth set. Stanford won the first and third games before BYU hitter Taylor Sander came alive for 12 of his match-high 27 kills. Both teams had chances to close out the match but could not capitalize when they had one-point leads. Steven Irvin put the Cardinal ahead, 34-33, with a block, sending Eric Mochalski to the service line with a chance to close out the match. Mochalski took his time and then blasted a serve to the right of BYU libero Jayen Reyes. The ball glanced off Reyes' arm for an ace, giving the Cardinal a victory.