EDWARD LIN/ Daily Bruin Mark Williams
attempts to spike the ball during a game against Hawai’i in the
MPSF tournament.
By Diamond Leung
Daily Bruin Contributor
Bruins win national championships. They demand and expect it
from themselves. But the men’s volleyball team fell just a
little bit short this season.
The Bruins would never admit it, but they had a very successful
season. They beat every team on their schedule this year except
one. In the wake of Saturday’s loss to BYU in the NCAA
Finals, it may not be what they want to hear, but it’s
true.
“The boys did a great job this year. I think we maximized
our potential,” UCLA Head Coach Al Scates said. “This
team came closer to maximizing its potential than several teams
I’ve had that have won NCAA Championships.”
Losing five senior starters from the season before, the Bruins
had a lot of questions going into the season. Combine that with the
implementation of an unpredictable new rally- scoring format, and
UCLA’s chances were up in the air. They were only ranked
fifth in the opening poll.
“Right now there are several teams who are better than us,
but I think I know how to peak this team,” Scates said before
the season started.
Losing senior All-American outside hitter Mark Williams to an
ankle injury during warm-ups before the Outrigger Tournament in
January in Hawaii didn’t help either.
“Once he gets back, we’re going to be stronger than
ever before because it has given us a chance to improve our
depth,” Scates said at the time.
That prediction was right on target. Junior opposite hitter Ian
Burnham, who had not seen playing time in three years with the
program, stepped in to fill the void. He became a part of a
three-man rotation with sophomore Cameron Mount and junior Matt
Komer that Scates relied on all season long.
In the home-opener against Long Beach, Scates was going for his
1000th career victory, but the 49ers spoiled the party, defeating
the Bruins in five games.
A week later against Pepperdine, four-time All-American middle
blocker Adam Naeve made sure that Scates wouldn’t have to
wait any longer. The senior, who had redshirted the season before
to try out for the national team, served up a school-record 10 aces
as well as Scates’ 1000th win on a silver platter.
“If there was a zone, that’s what I was in,”
said Naeve after the game, who eventually became UCLA’s
all-time leader in aces.
The win began a six-match winning streak that got the Bruins
rolling. And when Williams returned to the lineup, UCLA looked
unstoppable. They steamrolled MPSF opponents USC, Cal State
Northridge, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Irvine.
Then they faced BYU. In the mile-high altitude of Provo, Utah,
the Bruins suffered a loss that they would never avenge.
“BYU did everything better than we did,” Scates said
after the four-game loss.
Leave it to archrival USC to get the Bruins back on track. In
the USC North Gym, the Trojans were leading 29-24 in the second
game. That’s when the Bruins defied the laws of rally scoring
and came back, winning 33-31.
“We just came back and crushed “˜SC,” sophomore
setter Rich Nelson said. “We demoralized them.”
Everything seemed hunky-dory for the Bruins, but two nights
later Stanford came into Pauley Pavilion and shocked the Bruins in
a five-game thriller.
A month later, the Bruins went to Maples Pavilion for some
payback, but Stanford had different ideas, demolishing the Bruins
in a three-game sweep. The team that would ultimately get to the
NCAA Finals looking dead in the water.
And after the match, the Bruins knew who they wanted to play in
the playoffs.
“We want to play Stanford,” Scates said. “That
was our choice ““ the team’s, the staff’s, and my
personal choice. We have not yet played our best game against
them.”
The Bruins got their wish, nabbing the third seed in the MPSF
Tournament to set up a third showdown with Stanford.
This time, it was UCLA that pulled out the five-game
thriller.
“We got beat twice and there was no way in hell we were
going to lose a third time,” Nelson said after the win.
“We knew we were playing them and we were out for
blood.”
The Bruins carried their momentum into Provo for the MPSF
semifinal and final rounds. After escaping with another five-game
win over Long Beach State, the Bruins defeated Hawai’i in
four to win the MPSF Championship and capture the automatic berth
into the NCAA Tournament at Long Beach.
UCLA cruised past Ohio State in the semifinals and were chomping
at the bit for BYU, a team that earned an at-large berth to get in
the tournament.
Well, the Bruins got their wish, but also got their heads handed
to them. The veteran-laden Cougars swept the Bruins out of the
Pyramid and back to Los Angeles.
It was the last match for Naeve and Williams, who will go down
in UCLA history as Bruin greats.
Despite the loss, there is hope for the future. A core group of
sophomores in Nelson, Mount and middle blocker Scott Morrow will
provide wins for years to come. Libero Adam Shrader earned All-MPSF
Second Team honors as a freshman.
Yes, the Bruins will be back next year, and once again
they’ll expect to be right there at the end.