Spikers wipe out Waves in 3-0 sweep
Stillwell steps up to lead volleyball over hapless
Pepperdine
By Eric Branch
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The Pepperdine Waves needed about five more groin pulls.
Playing without the services of senior quick hitter John Speraw,
the assembly line of talent known as the UCLA men’s volleyball team
churned out freshman Tom Stillwell from the bench and the results
were strikingly similar as the top-ranked Bruins rolled to 15-4,
15-4, 15-10 victory over No. 10 Pepperdine Friday night in Pauley
Pavilion.
With Speraw out with a pulled groin, UCLA (5-0 overall, 2-0 in
Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) turned to Stillwell, who
responded in his first-ever appearance in a Bruin uniform.
Stillwell played a significant role in assisting a Bruin offense
which peppered the Waves (3-3, 0-3) with a whopping .441 hitting
percentage. On that night Stillwell posted nine kills (.500 hitting
percentage) to go along with a team-high two blocks. However,
things did not begin quite as promising for the true freshman.
"He started off jumping too high because he was a little
excited," UCLA assistant coach Brian Rofer said. "I was kind of
thinking ‘Oh God here it goes,’ but he settled down and played a
great match."
Stillwell confessed to experiencing a case of first-match
jitters.
"At first I was shaking because it was my first UCLA start,"
Stillwell said. "But eventually I kind of forgot about everything.
I didn’t even notice the crowd."
The rest of the Bruin lineup had a slightly easier time finding
their zone. UCLA hit .577 in the first two games as four Bruin
starters hit at least .500 on the night. But despite the gaudy
numbers, UCLA held a slim 6-4 first-game lead until a flurry of
jump serve lasers from 1994 AVCA Player of the Year Jeff Nygaard
(match-high 18 kills, three aces) opened the floodgates. The Bruins
reeled off eight consecutive points off Nygaard’s serve to reach
game point.
"Our serving was a real plus tonight," UCLA head coach Al Scates
said. "Jeff practically won the first game single-handedly with
those jumpers."
Another plus for the Bruins was the continued impressive play of
sophomore opposite hitter Paul Nihipali. After blasting 22 kills
earlier in the week against Loyola Marymount, Nihipali rang up 16
kills to go along with a robust .609 hitting percentage. However,
Nihipali was not overly impressed with his performance.
"I thought my offense was strong but I was terrible on defense,"
Nihipali said.
While terrible might be overstating the case, the Bruins
themselves were slightly off in the final game. After jumping out
to a 9-2 third game lead, UCLA was caught off guard by a Pepperdine
rally which closed the lead to 11-9. All-American setter Chip McCaw
(37 assists), who was hampered by poor passing throughout the
night, and middle blocker Lee Bradford (team-high 15 kills)
spearheaded the Wave resurgence.
"We finally started passing a little better in the final game
and that gave Chip some options," Pepperdine head coach Marv Dunphy
said. "But UCLA had a lot to do with our poor passing. They kept us
off balance and they’ll do that to plenty of teams this year.
That’s why they’re the team to beat."
After reaching 14-10 the Bruins sent the Waves home as a Nygaard
cross-court blast sealed the match.
Senior swing hitter Erik Sullivan had nine digs and junior
setter Stein Metzger registered 52 assists.