MARY CIECEK/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Junior outside
hitter Matt Komer watches as he is blocked in
Saturday’s NCAA Championship game. The Bruins were upset by BYU in
three straight games. BYU d. UCLA 30-26, 30-26,
32-30
By Diamond Leung
Daily Bruin Contributor
LONG BEACH “”mdash; The plan was simple, really. The top-ranked
Bruins were going to win the title, hold their index fingers up
high, smile for the cameras, and yuk it up in front of their
fans.
And why not? It’s happened 18 times before.
It’s just too bad for UCLA that No. 2 BYU had a plan of
their own ““ a plan that worked to perfection as the Cougars
(23-4) swept the Bruins (24-8) Saturday afternoon 30-26, 30-26,
32-30 at the sold-out CSU Long Beach Pyramid to win their second
NCAA Championship.
When all was said and done, there was no doubt who the better
team was. The Cougars simply outplayed the Bruins, leaving UCLA
Head Coach Al Scates humbled.
“I used to have the opinion that if we didn’t win
it, the season is a loss, but I’ve changed. I’m not
disappointed,” he said. “BYU is the best team in
college volleyball.”
The loss was no less shocking. Nine times out of 10, UCLA has
won these NCAA Tournament matches. Never in their storied history
had the Bruins been swept in the tournament. Not that the Cougars
are big on history.
“I wonder how many times they’ve won a national
title by intimidation alone,” said BYU junior outside hitter
Mike Wall, the Tournament MVP who led the Cougars with 16 kills on
the night. “We don’t care what their record is. We beat
them this year, and we knew we could beat them tonight,” he
added.
 MARY CIECEK/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Setter Rich
Nelson pulls his shirt over his head after BYU blocked a
Bruin kill for match point. In the background the Cougars
celebrate. NCAA ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM Jose Quinones
(Penn State) Adam Naeve (UCLA) Scott Morrow (UCLA) Hector Lebron
(BYU) Joaquin Acosta (BYU) Mike Wall (BYU)-most outstanding
player
Source: NCAA
It was BYU’s choking defense that won them the
championship. The Cougars completely dominated the net,
out-blocking the Bruins 14.5 to three.
The imposing block decimated the Bruin outside attack. Senior
All-American Mark Williams (.000), sophomore Cameron Mount (-.375)
and junior Ian Burnham (.105) combined for more hitting errors than
kills. The untimely errors dug a hole for the Bruins, and the
Cougars were more than happy to bury them in it.
“We thought if we could maybe get one game that we could
stop their momentum,” Williams said.
No luck there. It just wasn’t UCLA’s night.
Match point was almost fitting. Sophomore setter Rich Nelson
went for a dump shot, but all it did was dump a final hitting error
onto a pile of Bruin mistakes. The shot ricocheted off two Cougar
blockers and fell softly to the ground back on the Bruins’
side, setting off a wild Cougar celebration.
“He basically threw it right at me,” junior outside
hitter Joaquin Acosta said. “I wasn’t really expecting
him to dump it.”
It wasn’t all bad for the Bruins. Senior All-American Adam
Naeve had 16 kills (.682) while sophomore Scott Morrow notched 14
kills (.706). The two quick hitters earned spots on the
All-Tournament team.
“What we were trying to do more than anything was shut
down their middles,” BYU Head Coach Carl McGown said.
“From that respect, we failed badly.”
But the Cougars pretty much stopped everything else the Bruins
did. Every point for UCLA was a grind. When the Bruins started to
come alive, they were answered by resounding blocks.
Although BYU came down 5,000 feet in altitude from its perch in
Provo, Utah, to play, they were walking on air after the win.
“It’s wonderful and special to get to do it against
a team that everybody measures themselves against,” McGown
said.
For UCLA, it’s a hard lesson to learn, but they’ll
learn it with their heads held high.
“I can’t be really too disappointed in these guys
because they work hard and we got beaten by a better a team,”
Scates said. “But this is the most difficult game of the year
to lose.”