Friday, April 10, 1998
Bruins hope to ride Waves to NCAA
VOLLEYBALL: No. 1 team must overcome tough outside hitters for
win
By Grace Wen
Daily Bruin Staff
It will be a match that could decide the fate of the UCLA men’s
volleyball team.
The top-ranked Bruins host No. 3 Pepperdine tonight in Pauley
Pavilion at 7 p.m.
It will be a showdown for first place in the Mountain Division
of the MPSF. The Bruins and the Waves are tied in the conference
standings with 15-2 records.
The winner of the match will likely receive the No. 1 seed in
the MPSF tournament and home court advantage throughout the
playoffs. The winner of the tournament receives the automatic bid
into the NCAA tournament.
"The top-seeded team gets home court advantage," UCLA head coach
Al Scates said. "After the first round, the semis and the finals
will be held at the sight of the top-seeded team.
"We don’t want to go to Pepperdine and play there. We know we
can win there but we’d rather play in Pauley of course."
Earlier this season in a match at Pepperdine, UCLA barely
escaped with a win in a five-game match that lasted over three
hours.
The Bruins fought back from a 2-1 deficit and trailed in game
four before turning the match around. The Bruin bench played an
instrumental role in the comeback as freshman Mark Williams posted
18 kills, seven digs and two aces. Junior Danny Farmer subbed in
for a struggling Tom Stillwell and hammered 15 kills, dug seven
balls and recorded two blocks.
"One of the things in our favor is that we have players on the
bench that can come in and contribute," Scates said. "That’s how we
beat them last time. They’ve been playing the same six guys all
year. They’ve got guys on the bench who have cobwebs on them."
A five-game epic is expected again for tonight. This time,
however, the focus for the Bruins won’t be on George Roumain, who
hammered 41 kills in the previous match.
Instead, UCLA will be trying to stop Pepperdine outside hitters
Scott Wong and Peter Kodacsy.
"We have to take care of their other hitters like Kodacsy and
Wong," Scates said. "Those guys get a lot of sets and we have to
take them out. George (Roumain) is a lot harder to deal with, but I
know we can block those other two guys. Later in the match I think
we can get to George after he’s hit 50 or 60 sets."
If UCLA can shut down the outside hitters and force a longer
match, the Bruins may have an edge. Despite the fact that UCLA has
only played in one five-game match all season, the Bruins hold an
advantage. The Waves have an 0-2 record in five game matches. In
addition, Pepperdine has lost 13 straight at UCLA.
But the Waves have won over BYU, Hawaii and Stanford, teams that
UCLA has lost to.
"The level of play is usually high when Pepperdine and UCLA face
each other, and there will be plenty on the line," Pepperdine head
coach Marv Dunphy said. "UCLA is a talented team, and they have a
veteran lineup that is loaded with weapons. We need to put
everything together and play our best match of the season if we
hope to win the match."GENEVIEVE LIANG/Daily Bruin
Tom Stillwell reaches a draw in a match earlier this year
against Loyola Marymount.