Look toward the heavens in Pauley Pavilion. There you’ll
see a banner listing the 18 years in which the UCLA men’s
volleyball team has won NCAA titles.
Forty-one-year veteran head coach Al Scates brought the Bruins
to practice at Pauley for the first time all season last week and
made them do just that. Implicit was the plea for UCLA to play like
champions of the past, to stop the harm being done to the honor of
the most storied volleyball school in the nation.
Of course, this didn’t work.
The Bruins subsequently went out Friday night and made a little
history of their own. In fact, they were history after a 30-23,
30-26, 30-26 loss to Stanford that marked the program’s
official fall from greatness.
UCLA, in only 81 minutes, eliminated itself from playoff
contention for the first time in school history, before wins by UC
Irvine and Long Beach State later that night could have also done
so.
“We came out unprepared,” setter Aaron Dodd said.
“It is what it is.”
UCLA finishes ninth in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation,
two games out of a spot in the conference tournament. The Bruins
(15-14, 10-12 MPSF) lost the most regular-season single-season
matches in school history, and only with a 30-26, 30-27, 30-26 win
over Pacific on Saturday did they tie for the fewest wins in a
single-season.
“They feel bad and should feel bad,” Scates said.
“I feel bad.”
During bad stretches, the Bruins have traditionally countered
that it all doesn’t matter as long as by the end of the
season, they have peaked. This year, they have successfully fallen
off and tumbled down from the mountaintop of volleyball supremacy
after winning an NCAA title in 2000.
So what happened? These were the guys who had spewed national
championship propaganda from the beginning. They were picked in the
initial poll as the No. 3 team in the country. They had UCLA
stitched across their jerseys.
Look on the court. There you’ll see setter Rich Nelson
struggling. The senior team captain was expected by coaches to have
an All-American year, but instead was in danger of losing his
starting job by the end of the season.
Teammates privately grumbled about his leadership, his blocking
became a non-factor, and his standing serve became a liability.
Nelson, somewhat bothered by a pinched nerve, had trouble setting
to the different hitters that would be inserted in every game of
every match.
“I’m pissed off that I didn’t lead the team to
the playoffs,” said Nelson, who was eventually pulled from
the Stanford match. “I blew it.”
Look on the bench. There you’ll see senior Scott Morrow
sitting. The all-conference selection and one of the best blockers
in UCLA history has been injured all season long. He was sidelined
for the early part of the season with a knee injury and played less
than 100 percent before suffering a season-ending finger
dislocation last month.
Chris Peña had a breakout year, leading the team in hitting
percentage, aces and blocks, but he could not pick up the slack at
middle blocker by himself.
“We missed Morrow the entire season,” Scates
said.
Look toward the scorer’s table. There you’ll see
Cameron Mount acting as the third-string public address announcer
instead of the team’s starting opposite hitter. Before the
season, Mount, a leading hitter and server, was ruled ineligible
for having already used up his four years of eligibility.
Scates unsuccessfully tried out six different players at
opposite, and no one ever came close to replacing graduated
All-American outside hitter Matt Komer, either.
And look in the stands. There you’ll see a bunch of
recruiting busts and one-dimensional walk-ons who at times weren’t
good enough to even suit up.
Yet these players also could have started on any given night.
Their inconsistency caused Scates to have to throw out a different
lineup for every match and play 24 players on the season when teams
can only play up to 12 players per match.
Even then, he never found the right combination.
“We were not that strong this season,” Scates said
with a smile.
Don’t look now. Even the volleyball god is laughing.
Ңbull;Ӣbull;Ӣbull;
Nelson, Morrow, Mount and team manager David Genders were
honored on Senior Night, Saturday. Junior Jesse Debban also
participated in the festivities, as he will leave the team for law
school.
Ңbull;Ӣbull;Ӣbull;
Freshman Patrick Nihipali returned to practice for the first
time last week after suffering from a mysterious ailment that has
plagued him all season.
He had previously failed to complete a single practice due to
breathing difficulties.
Nihipali played in one game of one match in the fall preseason
and will apply for a medical redshirt in order to get his true
freshman season back.
The nation’s No. 2-rated recruit behind UCLA opposite
hitter Matt McKinney, Nihipali would have started in place of an
injury-plagued Morrow, Scates said.