KEITH ENRIQUEZ/ Daily Bruin Senior Staff Senior
Adam Naeve spikes the ball in a victory over Ohio
State in the NCAA Tournament. The Bruins will advance to the
finals. NCAA Semifinal 30-21, 30-20, 22-30,
30-24
By Amanda Fletcher
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
LONG BEACH “”mdash; Only UCLA men’s volleyball Head Coach
Al Scates would have the gall to say who he wanted to play in the
NCAA finals.
After the semifinal games at the CSU Long Beach Pyramid Thursday
night, he’ll get his wish.
The first semifinal match consisted of not-so-close games as the
UCLA men’s volleyball team defeated Ohio State 30-21, 30-20,
22-30, 30-24.
After two games of dominating play which saw the Bruins put up
solid numbers in every category, the pendulum swung back and UCLA
was hit with an eight-point loss.
Letting down in the third game isn’t something new to the
Bruins; they did it against Hawai’i in the MPSF finals. This
time, it was a combination of OSU’s tough serving and .577
clip, their largest of the night, that changed the momentum.
“They served a lot harder and they managed to keep those
hard serves in,” Scates said. “They had a lot of
success and were really smoking.”
But similar to the match that gave them the conference title,
UCLA didn’t want a fifth game. Coming up with the big block
that waited all match to show up, UCLA limited OSU to a .037 clip
and sent the Buckeyes home.
But it wasn’t just the blocking. UCLA only finished with
6.5 to OSU’s 9.5. Junior opposite hitter Ian Burnham was the
firecracker that set the Bruins up for their grand finale.
Coming off the bench for junior outside hitter Matt Komer in the
waning moments of game three, Burnham exploded onto the court in
game four putting away 6 of 7 attempts for a team-high .714
clip.
But the real man of the match was senior middle blocker Adam
Naeve. At 6-foot-10, Naeve’s height gave him a hitting
advantage that helped him put away a team-high 15 kills with no
errors.
“We didn’t have anybody who was going to stop Adam
Naeve,” OSU Coach Pete Hanson said. “Clearly he’s
big and can hit over our guys.
“(Setter Rich) Nelson did a good job of going to (the
middle blockers), even forcing it on a bad pass, because those were
the ones that got kills.”
Naeve wasn’t just the Bruins leading hitter. With his two
aces on the night, he became the sole possessor of first place in
UCLA’s career aces category with 178. Going into the game,
Naeve shared the honor with former All-American setter Brandon
Taliaferro.
The second semifinal pitted UCLA’s nemesis BYU against
Penn State. The No. 1 team in the nation for most of the season,
BYU sneaked into the NCAAs as the at-large bid.
“Never know how BYU is going to play,” Nelson said.
“They played well against us and sucked against
Hawai’i. I thought Penn would pull an upset.”
They almost did.
Led by junior setter Jose Quiñones, the Lions’ quick
offense earned Penn 82 match kills, 22 more than BYU. In game one
alone, Penn State Lions put away 19 kills, many of which went
uncontested by the confused BYU blockers, behind a .783 hitting
percentage.
“They’re a lot tougher than our offense because
there are so many things going on,” middle blocker Mac Wilson
said.
BYU, the MPSF leader in blocking, proved themselves worthy of
that title.
While they posted a measly three blocks in the first two games,
games three and four saw the Cougars transform into a human wall
which stuffed Penn 15 times.
“As the match progressed we were able to become a little
more accustomed to their offense,” BYU Head Coach Carl McGown
said. “Eventually we started blocking much better than we had
originally.”
Which is a good thing because now, Scates will get his wish. On
Saturday, the UCLA Bruins will get another shot at the BYU Cougars,
but this time, it’s for the whole enchilada.
When the two teams met in Utah on Feb. 23, UCLA cited the high
altitude, which caused the ball to travel further, as a factor
behind their loss.
Here at sea level, BYU will be the team that has to make the
adjustments.
“It’s tough, especially for the passers,” BYU
hitter Joaquin Acosta said. “The ball comes a lot faster. We
usually struggle the first match with passing.”
“The toughest thing about UCLA is that they’re
UCLA,” Wilson added. “They might not do well at the
start of the season, but they’re always there, always
together as a team.”
For UCLA, OSU was only the appetizer. The Bruins are hungry for
more and with BYU’s win over Penn State, a rematch with the
Cougars is what has UCLA drooling.
“They’re the only team that has beat us that
we’ve not had the opportunity to beat,” Scates
said.