Tuesday, February 10, 1998
UCLA’s navy attacks
VOLLEYBALL Quiet but talented player helps lead Bruins to
success
By Grace Wen
Daily Bruin Staff
Lately, the most dominating player on the UCLA men’s volleyball
team is also the player that’s least likely to be heard.
You may not notice Adam Naeve (pronounced navy) at first because
of his quiet demeanor on the court, but you can’t miss his
lightening fast jump serves and blistering attacks that leave
opponents speechless.
The 6 foot 10 inch sophomore has been instrumental in UCLA’s
perfect start. His hitting and serving has kept the Bruins
undefeated thus far into the season.
"He’s very versatile," UCLA head coach Al Scates said. "I can
play him in three different positions. He’s a real threat out of
the backcourt. We can set him anytime we want to because he is very
deadly behind the three-meter line. He’s our best backcourt
hitter.
"His jump serve is fantastic. I think he’s got the best jump
serve in the league. The opponents don’t pass very well when he
serves. We have a very high scoring percentage when he’s serving.
He’s working on his digging right now. It’s getting a little
better, but that’s the thing he doesn’t do very well at this point
but we can live with that because he brings so many other weapons
to the game."
Naeve currently leads the team in three statistical categories:
hitting percentage (.426), kills per game (5.60), and aces (0.55).
However, if you ask him, he’ll tell you the numbers don’t mean
anything to him.
"Personally, I don’t give a damn about stats," Naeve said. "If I
get 30 kills, that doesn’t really mean anything to me. I feel good
about playing good and if I get 10 kills or nine kills but maybe I
was feeling good about my defense that day. As long as I feel that
I’m playing well … I have to think that I played my best."
It has always been about doing his best. As a youngster, Naeve
found varying degrees of success in many of the sports he tried.
Given his height, it would seem natural for him to play volleyball
but it took sometime to find his niche.
"He was always very good in sports," his mother Donna Naeve
said. "One time we took him to a little fair and you had a little
bean bag that you had to throw at different things. He’d throw the
bean bag through the frog’s mouth. He would hit it right through
the bull’s eye, right through the mouth at three years old. He just
always had that gift to put the ball right exactly where he wanted
it.
"Basketball, soccer, baseball, he just wasn’t crazy about any of
them. It was frustrating because we knew he was talented. He just
tried volleyball and that was it. It’s a great sport for him and I
think he has the agility that volleyball needs over basketball.
He’s pretty agile for his height. He’s a good dancer. He used to
win prizes at the cotillion as a 12 year old."
The ability to put the ball where he wants it has made him a
success but it was the love of the sport that kept him playing.
"My dad always had me play basketball because I was tall as a
kid," Naeve said. "And then one day I just said, "Dad I don’t want
to play basketball anymore," but he thought I should just play
something to stay in shape and he signed me up for volleyball. I
ended up really liking it. I never played a sport where I had fun.
I just kind of thought a sport was hard work, but I actually had
fun."
Though he no longer plays basketball or dances, Naeve has
continued with volleyball. As a high school volleyball player, he
earned league MVP honors three times, was a three-time first team
All-CIF selection, and was named 1996 CIF MVP. His high school team
won the 1996 CIF title and he won a gold medal at the 1995 Junior
Olympics along with setter Brandon Taliaferro.
With his success in high school, it seemed only fitting that
Naeve would attend UCLA. It was a campus that was very familiar to
him since he had come here many times as a spectator of basketball
and volleyball games. In addition, the opportunity to win a
national championship each of his four years also served as a
motivating factor.
In his freshman year, Naeve started in all but one of UCLA’s 29
matches. He finished the season with 344 kills and a .403 attack
percentage (the highest of all the starters), while serving a
team-high 35 aces en route to being named a second team AVCA
All-American and to Volleyball magazine’s All-Freshman Team.
In the NCAA championship match, Naeve hammered 18 kills, hit
.382 and tallied 11 total blocks as UCLA came within a hair of the
national championship.
"I was kind of nervous coming in last year thinking that
everybody has this winning attitude," Naeve said. "I hope I don’t
bring the team down but playing with such great athletes, you
really adapt to that winning attitude. The guys on the team never
treated me like a freshman. They never said, ‘Oh it’s okay, you’re
only a freshman.’ I didn’t feel a lot of pressure because Paul
Nihipali took a lot of the pressure off of me because he was the
go-to guy so I didn’t have to worry about hitting the game-winning
ball. So without that pressure, it was a lot easier to play."
You might expect a little drop in play from someone who has
accomplished so much in his rookie season. But Naeve began his
sophomore year right where he left off.
At the Outrigger Hotels Invitational he was named MVP of the
tournament. Against Santa Barbara, the sophomore tallied a
match-high 30 kills during UCLA’s three-game sweep of the Gauchos.
A few weeks ago, Naeve also tied his career high of 38 kills when
the Bruins defeated Pepperdine in a close five game match.
The sophomore slump was never a concern for Naeve. In fact, as
the team leader in hitting, Naeve has been thrust into the new role
as the go-to guy. It’s a new experience for the sophomore who spent
most of last year riding the arm of Paul Nihipali.
"He’s easily Player of the Year so far," setter Brandon
Taliaferro said. "He is just taking his talent and he’s going way
up above everybody else. We totally expected it of him. He is a
workhorse. He’s carrying us. It’s what he’s suppose to do."
For anyone else at his age, it may seem like a big load to
carry. Naeve, however, says that he doesn’t mind stepping into the
role of the go-to guy.
"It’s not that bad (as the go-to guy) this year," Naeve said. "I
think its because I have the greatest team around me. I’m not an
individual player at all. I never have been. I’m a total team
player. I feel like I couldn’t be playing my best if I played at
Pepperdine or Stanford or anything. I feel like this is the best
group of guys I could play with and they bring it out in me.
"Everybody on the team has a competitive attitude. I think
that’s something that’s gotten a lot stronger in me. I want to win
every single second I’m playing out there. I’ve never felt that
before. I know they say winning isn’t everything but if I’m losing
then I’m not playing my best. If I’m playing my best then there’s
no reason we should lose."
His best has definitely caught the attention of others.
"He’s outstanding," Pepperdine head coach Marv Dunphy said.
"He’s a great, great talent. It’s not how big you are, its how good
and great you are. He’s a great big man."
According to Scates, national team coach Doug Beal calls often
to check up on Naeve. A future with the national team looks
promising for Naeve who has said that wants to play for Team USA.
It’s one of the many goals that he has set for himself. In fact,
his ultimate goal is to be on the Olympic team so that he can
compete against the best in the world.
Although Naeve has set lofty goals, don’t expect him to get any
louder
"I’m not vocal at all," Naeve admitted. "I leave that to
Brandon. I like to show my feelings through my actions. I’ll be
pumped up during a game but other players won’t see it and they’ll
be telling me, ‘Come on Naeve, get pumped up, get pumped up,’ but
that’s just the way I am. I get pumped up mentally."
Though he doesn’t say much, he does hear all the comments that
opposing fans have made. He uses their words to raise his own level
of play.
And in the end, it is this quiet volleyball player that leaves
the opposition and its fans silent.GENEVIEVE LIANG/Daily Bruin
Sophomore Adam Naeve’s pivotal role on the men’s volleyball team
has helped the Bruins maintain their No.1 ranking.