Spikers seek revenge in paradise
Bruins face Penn State in finals rematch at Hawaii
tournament
By Lawrence Ma
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Just days after UCLA’s historic loss to Penn State in the NCAA
Championship finals, Bruin head coach Al Scates was already
plotting the revenge.
Scates scheduled the Nittany Lions, the first national
championship team from outside of California, not once, but twice
in 1995. And the first of those meetings will occur tonight, as the
top-ranked Bruins take on No. 3 Penn State in the Hawaii Tournament
in Honolulu. The winner of the match will play on Thursday against
the winner of the Hawaii-Loyola Marymount match, also tonight.
The Bruins (1-0 overall) have five starters back from last
year’s national runner-up team, and they will be seeing some
familiar faces across the net. The Nittany Lions, who have yet to
play an official match this season, return four starters from the
1994 Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association championship
team, including setter Carlos Ortiz.
"We anticipate them being in the same offense they were in
against us in the NCAA finals," Scates said. "However, one key
ingredient they will be missing is their primary swing hitter, who
has graduated."
That swing hitter, Ramon Hernandez, ripped the Bruins for 38
kills in the national championship match.
"Yeah, that was the guy that killed us," Scates said. "Now he’s
not here. However, the other guys all had some good experience over
the summer. I think (Ed) Josefoski played on the (national B team).
He’s a big strong left-handed opposite hitter."
Josefoski, a 6-foot, 5-inch opposite nicknamed "Hollywood
Eddie," had 18 kills against the Bruins last May in the NCAAs. The
Lions also retain the services of middle blockers Kevin Hourican
and Ivan Contreras.
UCLA’s primary concern against Penn State is the status of
setter Stein Metzger. Metzger pulled his stomach muscle in practice
a week ago and the condition worsened during last weekend’s UC
Santa Barbara Collegiate Invitational.
Metzger sat out a couple of scrimmages during the tournament,
but came back to set the Bruins to a 3-0 victory over No. 7 UCSB
Saturday. Metzger said that during the match he felt no ill effects
from the injury, but he was held out of practice on Monday. Scates
has altered the Bruin attack to accommodate for Metzger’s injury,
however.
"I changed the entire rotation (Monday) because I can’t have
(Metzger) sprinting in from the back line like I have all season,"
Scates said. "I’m afraid that sudden release in the sprint to the
net, particularly with a good jump server serving, is not going to
do him any good.
"I arrange the lineup so that he doesn’t have to make that big
run, which means that everybody out there has different
assignments."
Scates had junior setter Greg Gratteau run the offense on
Monday, as he implemented a new side out rotation.
"That’s all right because the spikers are all veteran players,
and they can pick that all up quickly," Scates said.
UCLA practiced on Tuesday, before leaving for the islands late
in the afternoon. Scates plans to go with Metzger against Penn
State and then play Gratteau in the following match.
"Well, if (Metzger) doesn’t last, he doesn’t last," Scates said.
"Gratteau came in and played very well with the starting spikers
against Pepperdine (at the UCSB Invitational), and we blew them
out."
It’s still very early in the season and it is only a two-day
tournament in paradise, but Scates is taking this one very
seriously.
"This is basically a real fact-finding mission for us," Scates
said. "It will measure how well we’re doing at this stage and we’ll
get familiar with the team that will probably come out of the East
Regionals (in the NCAAs). It’s not terribly unlikely that we’ll be
seeing these folks again in the Final Four, so this is an important
match for us."