TYSON EVANS Outsider hitter Cameron Mount leads
No.2 UCLA against No.4 BYU
By Diamond Leung
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
It happened nine months ago, but the UCLA men’s volleyball
team remembers well what happened in last year’s championship
match against BYU.
“We had all the confidence going into the match last
year,” senior outside hitter Matt Komer said. “We
thought we were going to win like we usually do.”
The Bruins thought wrong. BYU swept UCLA to win the NCAA
championship, leaving no doubt as to which was the better team. The
No. 2 Bruins (13-2, 8-1 MPSF) look to get revenge against the No. 4
Cougars tonight and Saturday at Pauley Pavilion.
“These are payback matches for last year,” Komer
said. “We still remember what happened, so we have to come
out and show them what this year’s all about.”
“We’re looking to this year, and we’re not
going to worry about the past,” junior setter Rich Nelson
added.
Nelson has reason to bury the memory of last year. It was his
hitting error on match point that clinched the championship for
BYU. He dumped the ball right into the block of Cougar outside
hitter Joaquin Acosta.
Acosta’s cousin is UCLA freshman outside hitter Jonathan
Acosta. Jonathan, the Bruins’ kill leader before tearing his
abdominal muscle, will miss the BYU matches. Joaquin, meanwhile, is
one of the many weapons that the Bruins will have to stop.
“BYU has the best three outside hitters in the
league,” UCLA head coach Al Scates said.
Besides Acosta, Scates refers to senior All-American Mike Wall
and junior Jaime Mayol.
UCLA has won 11 of its 12 matches, however two wins against the
defending national champ would establish UCLA as the team to beat,
but Scates isn’t getting into the hype.
“Every match has been big,” he said. “The
biggest matchup for us is the team we play in the first round of
the playoffs.”