Friday, April 17, 1998
Bruins receive top seed in tourney
VOLLEYBALL: UCLA set to play eighth-seeded LMU in first
round
By Grace Wen
Daily Bruin Staff
The seeds for the MPSF tournament were announced late Tuesday
night.
As expected, UCLA received the top seed and will face
eighth-seeded Loyola Marymount Saturday night in a quarterfinal
match. The match will start at 7 p.m. in the Wooden Center.
"Loyola is a good first round opponent for us," UCLA head coach
Al Scates said. "We’ve played them twice, we know them well. We’ve
played long games with them.
"We beat them pretty well because they have a hard time scoring
on us. They don’t block us for points very well."
It will be the third time this season that these two teams have
met. The Bruins came away with wins both times and have a 55-0
record against the Lions.
During a match last week, LMU stole a game from the Bruins but
UCLA prevailed in the fourth. The Bruins held LMU to .224 hitting
and out-blocked the Lions 24 to 6.
Despite the previous two losses, Lion head coach Rick McLaughlin
isn’t daunted by the seemingly insurmountable task ahead.
"A lot of people would say that’s the toughest matchup,"
McLaughlin said.
"I think the bottom line is that you have to beat UCLA to win it
all at some point in time.
"And you might as well do it in the first round if you’re going
to do it ever."
* * *
Other quarterfinal matchups for Saturday feature fourth-seeded
BYU at No. 5 Long Beach State.
In the other bracket, the second seed Hawaii Rainbows will play
at home against seventh-seeded UC Santa Barbara.
No. 3, the Pepperdine Waves, will also play at home against
sixth-seeded Stanford.
UCLA will host the semifinals and the finals of the tournament
in Pauley Pavilion if it wins on Saturday night.
GENEVIEVE LIANG/Daily Bruin
Adam Naeve (left) and Mark Williams go up to block an LMU spike.
UCLA will face LMU in round one of the MPSF tournament
Saturday.