Friday, February 27, 1998
UCLA has no problem handling Anteaters
VOLLEYBALL: Victorious team able to maintain intense play versus
UCI
By Grace Wen
Daily Bruin Staff
UC Irvine may be having the best season in its school history,
but so is UCLA.
The top-ranked UCLA men’s volleyball team continued its winning
tear, demolishing the Anteaters 15-5, 15-6, 15-6 in less than an
hour and a half. The Bruins are making it a regular practice to
send opponents packing before their buses have cooled.
"I thought we played well," UCLA head coach Al Scates said. "I
thought we had five players playing well."
Actually, they only needed one.
Setter Brandon Taliaferro came out on fire. The sophomore served
six of UCLA’s seven aces and posted six kills in seven attempts for
a whopping .857 clip. And he also tallied 45 assists.
In game one, the Bruins capitalized on serving and hitting
errors by the Anteaters to score the first five points of the
match. UCLA didn’t need any help the rest of the game as every
point after came from a UCLA kill or block. The Bruins could do no
wrong as hitter after hitter found the open court.
The Anteaters, however, came alive in game two jumping out to a
5-3 lead. The lead would evaporate as Irvine self-destructed. The
Anteaters were blocked twice, aced twice, had a hitting error and
were called out of rotation. The string of Irvine errors brought
the score to 9-6 and any momentum the Anteaters had was lost.
Game three began slowly for both teams. After 17 sideouts, the
score was only 1-1. An Adam Naeve block would start a 9-4 run that
ended any hopes Irvine might have had of taking a game off the
Bruins.
"I think with a team like that, who’s having success for the
first time like they are right now, when they play UCLA or top
teams, they get a little nervous and they kind of hold back,"
Taliaferro said.
Irvine head coach Charlie Brande agreed.
"I think at times we played with heart and battled them pretty
well," Brande said. "I’m proud of the way we played some of the
time.
"Great team that UCLA has. Tremendous focus, they can stay at
the same emotional level for a long period of time."
The Bruins will look to continue its winning ways on Saturday
night as it hosts No. 12 Lewis University in a non-conference
match.
Last year, Lewis almost stole a win as it took UCLA right down
to the wire. In a game that took over three hours to play, the
Bruins barely edged out the Flyers, 24-22, in the pivotal fifth
game.