Monday, April 1, 1996
By Ruben Gutierrez
Daily Bruin Staff
Proving a 16-day hiatus from hardwood competition did them
little harm, the No. 2 UCLA men’s volleyball team handily pounded
archrival USC Friday night, sweeping the No. 13 Trojans 15-8,
15-11, 15-12 at Pauley Pavilion.
The victory was the sixth consecutive win for UCLA, who had not
played since taking a five-game thriller from BYU on March 13.
UCLA’s (17-3 overall, 12-2 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation)
victory was spurred by an unlikely hero in the form of senior swing
hitter Matt Taylor. Taylor came off the bench in the second game,
making vital contributions on both offense and defense to help the
Bruins take a commanding 2-0 lead in the match. In limited duty,
Taylor put away four kills and hit .375, and came up with five
timely digs for UCLA.
"The key move for us was when Taylor came in in the second
game," UCLA head coach Al Scates said. "He gave us some instant
digging and put some balls away, too. He came in for Brian Wells,
who was having a hard time putting the ball away, although he was
passing really well. After Taylor came in, we just pulled
away."
The UCLA onslaught was led again by junior opposite hitter Paul
Nihipali. A second team All-American last year, Nihipali was
naturally pegged as one of the premier players in the country.
After battling an early-season shoulder injury and switching back
to opposite after a brief stint at quick hitter, Nihipali has
evolved into one of the most consistent players in the country.
Nihipali recorded a team-high 23 kills on a .367 attack percentage
against USC (7-10 overall, 6-9 MPSF).
"He goes out every night and gets his six kills a game for us,"
Scates said. "There are two blockers on him all the time. Against
‘SC, he went out and had almost eight kills per game. His block is
so intimidating, he just gets out there and gets his hands in
peoples faces. He had three aces, too, so his serving was real good
also."
According to Scates, some hard workouts over the course of the
layoff helped the squad improve their attacking, serving and
digging. One area of concern is blocking, an area which has
traditionally been UCLA’s strong suit.
"I wasn’t really happy with the blocking," Scates said. "We had
a two-week layoff and the blocking wasn’t where it was when we
played BYU. We were a little further along in other aspects, but we
weren’t as sharp overall."
The postseason is just around the corner, with the MPSF playoffs
less than three weeks away. The Bruins have some tough matches
ahead of them as they take on No. 6 UC Santa Barbara on Wednesday.
Besides No. 1 Hawaii, the Gauchos are the only team which has
beaten the Bruins this season. The Bruins are expected to advance
to a showdown with Hawaii in the MPSF championships later this
month and will likely receive an at-large berth in the NCAA
Tournament at Pauley Pavilion in May regardless of the outcome.
"We had about a thousand people out for the match Friday,"
Scates said. "We want to see if we can get a couple of thousand out
for the NCAAs and maybe get a home-court advantage going here."
PATRICK LAM/Daily Bruin
Right to left: UCLA men’s volleyball players Matt Taylor, Tom
Stillwell and Stein Metzger.
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