By Pauline Vu
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
FORT WAYNE, Ind. ““ It was supposed to be an easy NCAA
semifinal match for the UCLA men’s volleyball team, but the
top-seeded Bruins made things a lot tougher than it should’ve
been. To complement that, fourth-seeded Penn State played a lot
tougher than anyone gave them credit for.
So in a 15-11, 15-8, 15-10 sweep that was closer than the scores
imply, the Bruins defeated the Nittany Lions on Thursday night in
front of 2,293 at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum to claim a
place in the NCAA final on Saturday.
“Our play there at the end was just not wanting to give
up, and not going out without a fight,” Penn State senior
middle blocker Adam Whitescarver said.
They proved that early on. UCLA opened the match with three
straight points and built that lead to 8-0 and 12-3, but the Lions
kept faith. They held on and scored eight until they were within
one on the scoreboard at 12-11, though eventually three Nittany
Lion attack errors gave the Bruins the game.
“Probably the one thing that would scare me the most was
to get off to the start that we got off to,” Penn State head
coach Mark Pavlik said. “I thought there was a little bit of
self-confidence shaken and team-confidence shaken.”
The Bruins had a different problem.
“We came out really fired up, and then we got into one of
those ruts where we were just going through the motions,”
Bruin senior setter Brandon Taliaferro said. “I think we were
trying to get ready for Saturday.”
Yet the Bruins started the second game slowly as well. Penn
State matched them point-for-point and came closest at 9-8. Then
UCLA head coach Al Scates substituted redshirt freshman outside
hitter Cameron Mount into the game, and the force of his energy was
enough to finish off the Nittany Lions.
“It was Cameron Mount coming in and hitting the jumpers;
we scored on those serves,” Scates said, explaining the
switch in momentum. “That help off the bench turned it
around.”
UCLA was up 11-8, and with Mount jump-serving to throw off the
Penn State passers, the Bruins scored the final four points behind
Nittany Lion hitting errors and one of UCLA senior opposite Evan
Thatcher’s team-leading 16 kills.
In game three, the Bruins again showed both the signs of a team
that could dominate and the signs of a team ready for a letdown.
And the Nittany Lions showed that they weren’t just going to
roll over.
UCLA jumped out to a quick 8-1 lead and led throughout the game
at a safe distance. At the first match point of 14-6, however, Penn
State fought its hardest. A total of 22 sideouts and four more
points passed before the Bruins could close out the match.
“We showed some spunk at the end but not enough,”
Whitescarver said. “Throughout the whole three games it was a
big battle.”
The Bruins managed eight aces (four by Taliaferro, three by
Williams and one by senior middle Seth Burnham) with only 18
errors. They also out-dug (32 digs to 25) and out-blocked the
Nittany Lions (10.5 team blocks to 7.5).
But one of their strongest weapons, according to Penn State head
coach Mark Pavlik, was incredible leadership.
“Number one ““ I think (team captain) Brandon
Taliaferro is one of the best leaders in the game right now,”
Pavlik said. “He got his team off to a great start with his
jump-serving. He showed confidence when things weren’t going
well for the Bruins.
“You can never underestimate the confidence a great leader
can bring to a team,” he added.
But Taliaferro downplayed his leadership role.
“I don’t even know if the guys listen to me,”
he said with a laugh. “Probably, it’s good for me more
than for them.”
On Penn State’s side, Pavlik was pleased with the play of
his two starting freshmen, swing hitter Carlos Guerra and opposite
Zeljko Kollesar, pointing out that they were the team leaders with
17 and 15 kills, respectively.
“I think they can walk in here next year or at Long Beach
(the site of next year’s Final Four) and say that we’ve
seen this movie before,” he said.
So the main positive the Nittany Lions can pull from the match
is the fact they can look forward to next year.
But the main positive the Bruins can pull from it is that they
now have a chance to win their 18th national title on Saturday.