Wednesday, February 19, 1997
M. VOLLEYBALL:
Coach looks back on previous battles with the TrojansBy Vytas
Mazeika
Daily Bruin Contributor
Last week, before his match against Pepperdine, UCLA men’s
volleyball coach Al Scates said: "I would like (the 900th victory)
to come against USC actually. That is the team I enjoy beating the
most."
Tonight, after being dismantled in three games by Pepperdine
last Thursday, Scates and his 5-3 Bruins (4-2 in Mountain Pacific
Sports Federation play) will try for that historic victory against
crosstown rival USC (6-4, 5-2 MPSF).
During his 35 years of coaching, Scates has posted a 68-25
record against USC, including a 3-1 record against the Trojans in
NCAA Championship finals.
But the most memorable match against USC came in the 1981 NCAA
Final, where UCLA won a five game tug-of-war 11-15, 15-7, 15-11,
8-15, 15-13.
"There have been three wins in my 35 years of coaching that I
remember most," Scates said. "One was in Santa Barbara (against
USC), when (Dave) Saunders, our best hitter, had an automobile
accident. He had 160 stitches in his face and we lost him for the
NCAA final and semis."
But UCLA was able to use its depth to find a capable player to
take Saunders’ place in the starting lineup.
"We beat USC in five using a 5-foot- 10-inch hitter named Peter
Urmond, who was a great hitter, for Saunders," Scates explained.
"But not as good as Saunders, who went on to play on the ’84 and
’88 Olympic gold medal teams."
With their best hitter gone and facing a rematch with a Trojan
team that had defeated them in the finals in 1980 in four games,
UCLA was in need of a boost from other players. One of those
players turned out to be Steve Salmons.
"We used Steve Salmons, who had not played all year, as our
starting middle blocker," Scates said.
Salmons had missed the entire 1980 season and all of the 1981
season except the playoffs rehabilitating his knee. But with a
Superman-like performance during these matches Salmons helped UCLA
beat USC in the final  making the cover of Sports Illustrated
in the process.
The other two most memorable matches for Scates are the 1974
NCAA final against UCSB, which UCLA won in five games, 10-15, 15-8,
10-15, 15-11, 15-12, and last year’s NCAA final against Hawaii,
another five-game win (15-13, 12-15, 9-15, 17-15, 15-12).
But USC is the team which Scates has always like to beat the
most. And tonight at USC he gets a chance to get the historic 900th
victory against the Trojans.