Struggling Waves take on volleyball
No.1 UCLA hosts
No.10 Pepperdine
in 18th Kilgour Cup
By Lawrence Ma
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Craig Buck.
Bob Ctvrtlik.
Tom Sorenson.
Dain Blanton.
Much like the UCLA men’s volleyball team, the list of greats
just keeps growing for Pepperdine. But as the 10th-ranked Waves
enter Pauley Pavilion tonight at 7:30 for the 18th Annual Kilgour
Cup against the No.1 Bruins, the talent well may have finally run
dry.
After a mediocre 14-9 campaign in 1994, Pepperdine (3-2 overall,
0-2 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) has lost much of its attack
after the graduation of potent hitters Blanton and Greg Shankle.
It’s been a rough ride for the Waves thus far this season, with an
embarrassing 3-2 loss to perennial conference doormat UC Irvine and
a 3-0 drubbing at the hands of UC Santa Barbara this week.
"You know what, we’re not doing very well," Pepperdine coach
Marv Dunphy said. "We’re not as good as we’ve been in the past. We
lost 3-0 to Santa Barbara and it wasn’t a close 3-0."
Despite their recent struggles, the Waves still have one of the
best setters in the nation in Chip McCaw. The 6-foot-4-inch senior
is a pre-season first-team All American who can probably make the
most inept of passers and hitters look good.
"I think that there are three or four setters in the country
that are real good and I think that Chip would be one of the best,
if not the best," Dunphy said. "He means a lot to our team."
UCLA coach Al Scates agrees.
"It makes things a lot easier," Scates said of McCaw. "With a
good setter, if you get a bad pass, he’ll make a good play out of
it. Certainly, that’s a plus."
Even with McCaw, Pepperdine doesn’t seem to concern the Bruins
(4-0, 1-0) much. At the UCSB Invitational two weeks ago, the Bruins
crushed the Waves 2-0 in a scrimmage.
"Pepperdine is getting better, but it’s a down year for them,"
UCLA assistant coach Brian Rofer said. "My feelings are that we’re
not worried about them. We just want to continue to improve our
game."
Pepperdine is going with a couple of new hitters to fill the
void left by Shankle and Blanton. Middle blockers Lee Bradford and
John Bowling are now the "go-to" hitters.
"Those are the two guys that might give us problems, but they
haven’t so far," Rofer said. "They’re big strong hitters. They just
bang the ball. But I think we match up better against those types
of hitters."
It’s going to be a real challenge for the Waves to stop the
Bruin attack, which hit over .384 against Loyola Marymount. Dunphy
sees a lot of balance in the UCLA offense and emphasizes that
Pepperdine has to play well on its side of the net to upset the
Bruins.
"Obviously, you will always prepare the best you can," Dunphy
said. "But I would say that this UCLA team is the overwhelming
favorite to win probably all of their matches, not just
Pepperdine."
Pepperdine has appeared six times previous in the Kilgour Cup,
dropping all six, including last year’s match, to the Bruins. The
Kilgour Cup honors Bruin Hall of Famer Kirk Kilgour, who was
severely injured in a training accident in 1976. Proceeds from the
event are given to Kilgour, who attends every year.