Friday, January 15, 1999
Adam Naeve leads squad to quick win against UCSB
MVOLLEYBALL: Gouchos defeated in straight sets, but give some
resistance
By Pauline Vu
Daily Bruin Contributor
When UC Santa Barbara stepped into Pauley Pavilion, it was
obvious they’d been told how good No. 1 UCLA was. In fact, maybe
they’d been told just a little too much.
"We played scared," Gaucho coach Ken Preston said quietly. "You
can’t win a match against the Bruins like that."
And until the third game, the Gauchos didn’t even come close, as
UCLA swept all three games, 15-2, 15-6 and 15-11.
The Gauchos opened the match with the first point but quickly
lost possession of the ball to the Bruins, who scored five points
in a row. After one more Gaucho point the Bruins took control of
the ball and scored a succeeding 10 points.
The Gauchos managed to put up more resistance as the night wore
on. They opened up the second game fired up, taking a 2-1 lead. The
Bruins and the Gauchos looked even as the points slowly built up
for both teams but neither team was able to dominate.
The standstill lasted until the Bruins led 6-5, this was before
the Bruins quickly scored three points. They allowed just one more
Gaucho point to make the score 9-6 before easily scoring five
points to make game-point at 14-6.
The Gauchos provided one last exciting challenge in game two,
frantically trying to stop the Bruins. The result was a wild volley
with UCLA delivering clean shots, while the Gauchos made defensive
digs and acrobatic sideways leaps.
But their efforts proved futile when they lost game two by
spiking the ball out-of-bounds.
For game three, coach Al Scates pulled starter and quick hitter
Adam Naeve out and replaced him with backup Matt Grace.
"Naeve was getting all of our points. We won easily," Scates
said.
The Naeve-less game three was the closest of all the games. The
Gauchos fired out three points immediately to lead the game, 3-0,
before the Bruins took control of the ball. They answered with five
points, three of them courtesy of the Gauchos when they twice
spiked the ball out-of-bounds and once allowed an ace when they
expected the serve to go out of bounds and saw it land on the line
instead.
But the Gauchos soon surpassed the Bruins, and scored three
points to lead 6-5 before Scates called a time out to stop their
drive.
"That (time out) was to ice them. Get them thinking," he
said.
The Gauchos still scored two more points before the Bruins got
their hands on the ball to score two.
The teams went at it back and forth until the Gauchos led 10-7.
Then the Bruins got a quick side out by Brandon Taliaferro and got
three points to tie the game. Then the Gauchos scored one more but
the Bruins scored four to take game three, 15-11.
The Bruins ended with a .283 hitting percentage compared to .064
by UCSB, as well as 48 kills and only 16 errors to the Gauchos’ 36
kills and 29 errors.
However, defensively the Gauchos led, with 45 defensive digs to
the Bruins’ 35.
The Bruins were not expecting the game to be won so easily.
Scates had sent scouts to watch the UCSB-Calgary game last week
when the Gauchos won 3-0, and had been impressed. Also impressive
was the fact the Bruins lost to Calgary when they played in the
fall.
"I didn’t feel my pulse rate go up at all. For the first two
games I was like the fans. I didn’t have to do anything," Scates
said.
Opposite Evan Thatcher was also surprised by the Gaucho’s
starting play.
"We expected better than that. They didn’t put up much
competition," he said.
But Thatcher also felt the team "should’ve beaten (the Gauchos)
like we did in the first game."
"We did well for the first game," Scates said. He praised Danny
Farmer, starting in his first collegiate volleyball game, for his
nine digs, Matt Grace for his five kills and .625 hitting off the
bench and Adam Naeve, the star of the first two games, for his
three aces.
"We didn’t play very well at all, but Naeve killed us," said
Preston.
"I didn’t expect us to shine like a light," Preston added, "and
not against basically the same team that won the national
championship last year."
He still found comfort in the character his team showed, and
especially the fight they showed toward the end of the match.
The Bruin will face the Gauchos again this weekend at the UC
Santa Barbara Tournament.
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