Tuesday, January 5, 1999
Bruins hope to revitalize their game against UC Irvine
tonight
M.VOLLEYBALL: Despite handily defeating the unranked Northridge
Matadors, UCLA players don’t feel they produced a top-quality
match
By Nick Taylor
Daily Bruin Contributor
Coming off an impressive win against Cal State Northridge
(CSUN), the No. 4 UCLA men’s volleyball team will try to extend its
modest two-game winning streak in a match against UC Irvine Friday
in Irvine.
UCLA disposed of Northridge Wednesday in three quick games and
extended its record to 5-2 and 3-1 in MPSF.
One would think UCLA ought to be happy with the way the team
played.
Not so, said Brandon Taliaferro. "We didn’t really play well,"
he said, "at least not like we wanted to."
The results indicate that UCLA should be happy with its
performance. This, however, is not the case, as Danny Farmer
explained:
"We don’t get complacent. We know how good winning feels, and we
know how bad losing feels."
Despite its winning tradition, though, UCLA is not at the top of
its conference early this season and must come from behind to make
the NCAAs.
The Bruins are 1 1/2 games out of the conference lead, behind
BYU’s 5-0 conference record. UCLA must keep winning before it faces
BYU for two road games in late February.
"We need to continue to block and hit better," Coach Al Scates
said.
The Bruins, after recording a season-high 27 blocks against LMU,
notched only 8.5 blocks against CSUN. UCLA didn’t need to light up
the defense, as its offense was too much for the Matadors on
Wednesday. The Bruins hit over .450 in each game and only had 13
total errors on the evening.
The Bruins will need to keep up their productivity on offense.
Against Northridge, UCLA was led by Mark Williams, who hit .667
with 13 kills on the outside.
With a few surprise performances, the Bruins look to start a
couple of new faces against Irvine.
Matt Davis will replace Fred Robbins on the outside, and Ed
Ratledge will come in for Thatcher at opposite. In his first start
for the Bruins, Ratledge led the team with 15 kills.
"We go with the hot hands on offense," Scates explained.
The Bruins’ real secret is spreading the ball around. "Everyone
is a threat on offense," Scates said.
Adam Naeve leads the team with over four kills per game, and the
rest of the starting hitters all average around three kills per
game.
On the defensive side of the net, the Bruins must contend with
Irvine’s Donnie Rafter and Josh Richardson.
Rafter had 24 kills and 11 digs on the outside, and Richardson
had 20 kills and six blocks in the middle.
Irvine recently received a tough five-game loss to USC, where
they nearly overcame a two-game deficit before losing 11-15 in the
fifth.CHARLES KUO/Daily Bruin
Opposite Evan Thatcher makes a play in a game against Loyola
Marymount University. UCLA will play at UC Irvine tonight.
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