Friday, April 4, 1997
M. VOLLEYBALL:
No.1 UCLA has won 12 in a row since earlier lossBy Vytas
Mazeika
Daily Bruin Contributor
When the UCLA men’s volleyball team lost to Pepperdine in three
games in the middle of February, the Bruin players walked out with
their heads down. They felt embarrassed and humiliated. Since that
night UCLA has won 12 straight matches.
Both coaches were clear to point out that next time these two
teams met things would be different  that when No. 1 UCLA
faces off against No. 5 Pepperdine the results should not be so
lopsided.
The Bruins (17-3, 13-2 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation)
feature a lineup which Waves Coach Marv Dunphy considers the most
potent in the country. Thus Pepperdine (17-5, 12-3 MPSF) should be
in for a match lasting longer than three games.
"UCLA has by far the best talent from anyone in the league,"
Dunphy said. "We want to play (against) the best and we are."
If not for a surprising turn of events, UCLA could have had
arguably the best reserve setter in the country. Freshman Kurt
Nelson originally enrolled at UCLA.
But when J.J. Riley, the Waves’ original setter, suffered a
season-ending knee injury, Nelson asked for and was granted a
release from UCLA. He transferred to Pepperdine and has been the
Waves’ setter ever since.
"(Nelson’s release) enabled Pepperdine to be an NCAA contender,"
Scates said. "If we had not done that, Pepperdine would be a bad
team because they would have had to use their starting middle
blocker to set … and they would have had no middle blocker to
take his place. So this was very generous of us to free up the
starting setter for them."
So along with outside hitters Kevin Barnett and George Roumain
(both ranked among the top 15 hitters in the nation), Pepperdine is
capable of gaining a share of the MPSF lead with a win tonight
against the Bruins.
And since the top conference team is awarded home-court
advantage for the entire MPSF playoffs, Scates knows that his team
must turn up the intensity and avoid taking anything for
granted.
"This (Bruin) team is not overconfident," Scates explained.
"When you have had three five-game matches and three losses, it
makes you a little weary of being overconfident."
Even though UCLA cannot prove that it is invincible, a victory
against Pepperdine tonight can at least make its lead in the
conference untouchable for the second-place Waves.
JON FERREY
Tom Stillwell (l.) and the Bruins face Pepperdine today.