Daily Bruin File Photo Mark Williams bumps the
ball in a game against BYU in the MPSF Tournament last season.
UCSB d. UCLA 27-30, 20-30, 30-28, 30-26, 15-13
By Amanda Fletcher
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The defending national champion UCLA men’s volleyball team
took second place in the UCSB Invitational held Friday and Saturday
in Santa Barbara. After sweeping No. 2 USC in the semifinals, the
No. 3 Bruins lost to the host Gauchos 27-30, 20-30, 30-28, 30-26,
15-13.
Ironically, that was the only game that counted. The tournament
sponsors only provided official scorekeepers during the final game,
so the three wins UCLA posted en route to the championship match
don’t count, and the Bruins’ 2001 season record now
stands at 0-1.
The Bruins aren’t worried, however, citing fatigue as the
main factor behind their loss to the Gauchos.
With only three days of practice under their belts, sophomore
outside hitter Cameron Mount was the only player able to keep up
the intensity, swinging for a team-high 22 kills.
“He was the only guy hitting on all cylinders, everybody
else was fading … I probably should have gone to the
bench,” UCLA head coach Al Scates said.
After taking the first two games the Bruins got caught on their
heels and let the momentum slip away. With a slew of missed serves,
a team hitting percentage that plummeted from .481 in game one to
.091 in game five, the Bruins were unable to regain control of the
match.
“We could’ve won and we had a chance to win it.
Santa Barbara was very emotional, they had the fans,” Scates
said. “They weren’t in better shape than us, they were
just going on the adrenaline of the home court.”
UCSB’s junior middle blocker Anders Bengstsson went up for
11 total blocks and junior opposite hitter Ben Koski pounded 18
kills to help put the Bruins away. UCSB outblocked UCLA 20-9.
The semifinal match against USC was a whole different story,
with the momentum on the Bruins’ side of the court. After
taking game one 30-28 UCLA fell behind in game two 18-6.
With the substitution of freshman Chris Peña, who fired up
the team with three blocks, the Bruins began to creep back into the
game. At 23-27, senior opposite hitter Mark Williams almost single
handedly put the Trojans away, serving six straight points
including two aces.
“We didn’t think we could do it,” Peña
said. “Even the coach said it was probably out of reach and
that we should just prepare for the next game.”
UCLA went on to win game three, sweeping USC 30-28, 30-28,
30-23.
Unfortunately the game can only be considered an emotional
victory due to the lack of official scorekeepers, which will keep
it off the record books.
“It doesn’t seem fair but that’s OK,”
Scates said with a laugh.
The Bruins also defeated UC Santa Cruz and Cal Baptist in the
tournament.
Peña agreed that the final scores weren’t that
important.
“It sucks to lose but we weren’t disappointed
because we got a lot out of the tournament,” he said.
“The main thing is that throughout preseason and season the
goal is to improve in a consistent way … and it will all come
together at the end when it counts.”
The highlight of the tournament is that the team finally found a
libero to replace Volleyball Magazine’s Libero of the Year
Matt Davis, who graduated last year. Freshman Adam Shrader will
join returning hitters Mark Williams, Matt Komer, Mount, Adam
Naeve, Scott Morrow and setter Rich Nelson in the starting
line-up.
With the final piece of the UCLA volleyball machine in place,
the Bruins will continue play at the Wyndham Garden West Coast
Challenge in Irvine this weekend.