By Pauline Vu Daily Bruin Senior Staff
A pair of newspaper articles helped inspire the No. 4 UCLA men’s
volleyball team in wins past Hawaii and Cal State Northridge the
last two weeks.
When the Bruins traveled to Hawaii for a pair of matches on
March 17 and 18, UCLA senior-setter Brandon Taliaferro picked up
the Honolulu Star-Bulletin to find that Rainbow middle-blocker
Brenton Davis said he was an easy read.
"He’s not real deceptive," Davis said of Taliaferro, a
three-time All-American. "He’s pretty easy to read, pretty
deliberate in his setting mannerisms."
But it was Taliaferro who set the Bruins (22-3 overall, 12- 3
MPSF) to a pair of four-game wins over the No. 6 Rainbows (15-8,
10-6).
"(Brenton Davis) is a good player, but I thought it was
definitely a bold statement to say something before we even
played," Taliaferro said. "If someone’s going to say anything, he
should wait until after we played."
Taliaferro added that though Davis’ words did fire him up a
little, it didn’t change his play on the court.
No, Taliaferro was his usual stellar self. He threw Hawaii off
the first night, spreading the sets so that six Bruins – including
himself – hit kills in double digits, then topped that the second
night with 11 digs, four blocks and five aces to blow Hawaii
away.
"He does the best job of jump-serving I’ve seen anybody do all
season long," UCLA head coach Al Scates said. "They couldn’t pass
the ball anywhere near the net when he served."
Besides the senior, the Bruin blockers also dominated both
nights, out-blocking Hawaii 18 to 10 and 17 to 10.
Senior opposite Evan Thatcher and junior outside-hitter Mark
Williams both led the team with 14 kills. Williams also had six
blocks and strong passing and digging despite playing with a fever
and a temperature of over 100 degrees.
"I was just feeling super weak," he said. "As the match went on
I got more and more tired."
The Bruins came in the next night wary of a possible letdown, as
teams such as top-ranked Long Beach State and No. 2 Pepperdine,
which also played two straight matches in Hawaii, had won their
first game but lost their second.
"It gave us a little extra motivation to come out and try to
play well," Taliaferro said.
Still, after winning game one 15-8, the Bruins got smoked in the
second game, 15-2.
"It seemed that they got a couple of controversial calls that
went their way, we made a bunch of mistakes, the crowd got into
it," Taliaferro said. "It was over before it started."
But UCLA recovered. Game three included seven straight points on
one of Taliaferro’s serving rotations, and the fourth game, which
the Bruins won 15-3, was as lopsided as the second.
"I didn’t see us fight," Hawaii head coach Mike Wilton told The
Honolulu Advertiser. "It kind of makes you scratch your head when
you look at what we were capable of in the second game."
Two weeks after the Hawaii games, it was time for the rematch
against No. 11 CSUN (9-13, 5-11), which took place Friday. Before
playing, however, Scates handed his team copies of a Los Angeles
Daily News article that recapped the Feb. 17 match, in which the
Matadors upset the Bruins in four games.
"It basically said that Northridge is now known as the team that
beat UCLA," Scates said.
It reminded the team, play-by-play, of the embarrassing
loss.
"It was talking about David and Goliath, saying all this stuff
about how (Northridge) beat us," senior quick-hitter Seth Burnham
said. "Coach Scates made all of us read it. Everybody was thinking
about getting revenge."
Still, remembering their earlier win, the Matadors came out fast
and won the first game 15-7.
But the Bruins killed the Matadors in the next two games,
winning 15-3 (.806 hitting percentage) and 15-1 (.722) before
taking the last game 15-12.
"That’s probably our best two games of the year," Scates said.
The team was led by freshman outside hitter Cameron Mount with 22
kills, followed by senior opposite Ed Ratledge with 19 kills and
Burnham with 17.
The Bruins didn’t let the loud crowd of 1,065 affect their play,
either. "We’d go dive for a ball out-of-bounds and the crowd would
run over and hold up signs and stuff," Scates said. "It was funny
as long as we won."
Burnham pointed out that each team had a different mindset to
the game.
"For us, the match is a must-win. For them, it’s a national
celebration if they do win. Every time they make any little play
they’re dancing around in a circle," he said.
The victory over Northridge marked UCLA’s 11th straight win.
That streak started after the Bruin loss to the Matadors.
"Ideally, we would’ve liked to have swept them real quick, just
to prove a point. That didn’t happen," Burnham said.
"But it’s still revenge," he added. "They’re still going to be
sitting at home doing nothing when playoffs start, and we’ll be
moving on."