Monday, April 15, 1996, 1996
No. 3 Bruin men’s squad comes out cold against hard-hitting Long
BeachBy Ruben Gutierrez
Daily Bruin Staff
At the Long Beach State Pyramid Friday night, the No. 3 UCLA
men’s volleyball team encountered everything possible, except for
the parting of the Red Sea, which in fact, would have made a
convenient escape route for the defending national champions.
The 49ers (21-4 overall, 15-3 Mountain Pacific Sports
Federation) hammered UCLA 15-10, 15-10, 15-13 and outhit them .376
to .259 to hand the Bruins their first loss by a sweep all
season.
The Beach dominated the Bruins (20-5, 14-4) in every facet of
the match, coming out ready to play in the marquee conference
match-up of the week. The story was not one of what UCLA failed to
do or of the Bruins missing opportunities. Rather, it was a tale of
what LBSU did to thwart UCLA’s plans. UCLA’s big gun, All-American
opposite Paul Nihipali came out cold in the first game, which
didn’t help the scenario out much either.
"A few of our guys came out and they weren’t firing. Paul wasn’t
putting the ball away and Brian Wells wasn’t putting the ball away,
so we kept trying to find a hot hitter."
In the first game of the evening, the Bruins rallied from an
early 7-3 deficit to take a 10-9 lead, at which point the two
squads traded eight sideouts, with Long Beach finally scoring to
tie the game. The Beach never looked back, and closed out in
dominant fashion to go up one game to none on UCLA.
After the first game, Scates inserted Matt Noonan in place of
Nihipali and subsequently replaced him with sophomore opposite Ben
Moselle, who proved to be just what the doctor ordered. Wells tied
the game at seven with one of his two-service aces, but the Bruins
slipped out of contention again and the 49ers jumped out to an 11-7
lead. Moselle paid immediate dividends, coming up with some key
scores and sideouts for the Bruins to bring them to 11-9. Moselle
finished the evening with 11 kills in limited duty. It was too
little, too late though, and the second-game loss pinned UCLA’s
back to the wall.
"I think a lot of the credit tonight goes to Long Beach,"
Moselle said. "They came out really strong, like they wanted to
win. We came out a little cold and they came out ready for us."
The Bruins came out quickly in the finale, opening up with
another ace by Wells. UCLA had a chance to win the game and pull
themselves out of a hole, leading 12-10, but again let the game and
the match slip away, scoring only one point the rest of the
way.
To add insult to injury, freshman swing hitter Fred Robins went
down at match point, 14-12, with a sprained ankle. Robins recorded
a team-high 14 kills and nine digs. LBSU’s Tom Hoff showed why he
is a Player of the Year candidate, eclipsing all others with 27
kills on a .404 attack percentage. Teammate Martin Wagner added 23
kills for the 49ers.
FRED HE/Daily Bruin
Sophomore Ben Moselle ended the game with 11 kills.