Spikers nearly embarrassed by UCSB
Bruins pull out 3-1
win over Gauchos
despite hitting .266
By Lawrence Ma
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
SANTA BARBARA-With a vicarious 2-1 lead in the enemy’s gym, the
UCLA men’s volleyball team found itself down, 3-1, in the fourth
game against UC Santa Barbara.
Bruin captain Erik Sullivan watched as UCSB’s Robert Treahy
squeezed another kill through the UCLA block and found himself
yelling, "This is embarrassing!"
Embarrassing or not, No, 1 UCLA escaped the from Thunderdome
with a 15-12, 14-16, 15-13, 15-9 win Wednesday night. The Bruins
improve to 6-0 overall, 3-0 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.
The No. 4 Gauchos fall to 6-3, 4-2.
The Bruins would readily admit that this was not their best
match of the year. A tough-serving and scrappy UCSB team made it
all look, well, embarrassing.
UCLA coach Al Scates searched for positives on a night when the
Bruins dropped their first game of the year and hit a mediocre
.266. He found one – the Bruins out-dug the Gauchos, 59-48.
"What I told the boys was that we made some great digs and we
scored points from digs that should’ve gone down," said Scates.
"With this kind of effort, I know we’re going to get better. I was
proud of the match from that standpoint."
Game-one was to forecast the course of the evening. The Bruins
led 5-3 after a block by John Sperraw, but the Gauchos came all the
way back to lead 9-5.
UCLA countered with tough serving and eventually pulled away
with a win on the errant serves and hits of the Gauchos down the
stretch.
UCLA led UCSB 14-9 in the second game, but the Bruins proceeded
to blow four game-points and eventually succumbed to the
Gauchos.
UCLA once again rolled out to a big lead in game three, starting
the frame with a 6-0 lead, but the Gauchos fought back to take the
lead, 12-10. The Bruins scored the next four points and after
conceding a point to UCSB, UCLA hitter Kevin Wong, who had 12 kills
and 11 blocks, served up an ace to take game three.
Game four was tied at nine before the Bruins made their move.
UCLA got three blocks down the stretch and a kill from Jeff Nygaard
(24 kills) to close the match out. Sophomore Paul Nihipali finished
the match with 21 kills.