Wednesday, April 15, 1998
‘Easy’ win slightly tougher than anticipated
Despite lackluster play, UCLA justifies No. 1 ranking
By Grace Wen
Daily Bruin Staff
Sometimes the "easy" matches are actually the toughest to
win.
That was certainly the case for the UCLA men’s volleyball team
last night. With the No. 1 seed already locked up, the Bruins
(24-3, 17-2 MPSF) played like a team that had little motivation to
win against UC Irvine (9-15, 5-14 MPSF).
Nonetheless, UCLA did come away with a victory. The Bruins
defeated the Anteaters 15-12, 15-11, 12-15, 15-4 before a packed
crowd of 510 at Crawford Hall.
"I think the edge was a little off," UCLA head coach Al Scates
said. "We had the first seed already, and some guys just didn’t
come to play. It didn’t look like we had everybody ready tonight,
but we pulled it off.
"They were very excited to play us. Their emotion was running a
little higher than ours, but we won and that’s the important
thing.."
Sophomore Evan Thatcher led the attack for the Bruins with a
match-high 25 kills at a .452 clip. Adam Naeve hammered 20 kills
while freshman Mark Williams and captain Tom Stillwell chipped in
14 kills apiece.
At first it seemed as though it would be a quick match as UCLA
effortlessly took a 3-0 lead in game one. But the Anteaters shook
off the butterflies and kept it close. The Bruins never had more
than a three-point lead, and the score was tied six times before
UCLA pulled away.
The Bruins came out flat in game two. The Anteaters took
advantage of poor Bruin passing to take a 9-3 lead. But the Bruins
rallied behind the serving of freshman Mark Williams and sophomore
Matt Davis to take a 13-10 lead. Two hitting errors by Irvine gave
UCLA a 2-0 lead.
Game three was similar to the first two games except that the
Bruins were not able to pull it out down the stretch. The Bruins
were noticeably frustrated by Irvine’s scrappy defense that kept
UCLA from finding any open court.
In game four, however, the Bruins finally demonstrated why they
are the No. 1 team in the nation as UCLA demolished the
Anteaters.
"I thought we played hard," UCI head coach Charlie Brande said.
"We just didn’t have the extra little spunk, the knowledge of the
game and the experience to put them away each time.
"The third game was a big, big win for us. One of our biggest
all year long."