Paul Johnson is in his last season on the UCLA men’s
volleyball team, and he’s really making it count. In the
Bruins’ win over Stanford on Feb. 17, the senior smashed a
career-high 22 kills (.545), four total blocks and an ace en route
to a career-high 25 points. Against Pacific on Saturday, he tallied
13 kills (.435) and four blocks. “Paul has been having a
great year; it’s his best year by far, and he’s still
getting better,” UCLA coach Al Scates said. “He’s
making himself available to the setter all the time, so he’s
getting a lot of kills. I also turned him loose and allowed him to
serve his jump serve after BYU, so he’s been getting added
points with his serving.” Playing in every game this season,
Johnson leads the team in attack percentage (.489), kills (3.36 per
game), and blocks with 1.36 per game. He also paces the team with
4.48 points per game and 18 aces on the season. “Just look at
his stats and you can see how much he obviously leads our
team,” senior Kris Kraushaar said. “He has always been
someone to get the ball to.” Despite ranking eighth in the
nation in hitting percentage and fourth in blocking average,
Johnson still sees room to improve. “I actually think some of
my stats have been going down lately though, so I can still get
better,” he said.
A LOT ON THE LINE: The top-ranked Bruins know
that they’ll be fighting for more than just another win this
weekend against third-ranked Hawai’i: They’ll be
playing for home-court advantage in the Mountain Pacific Sports
Federation tournament. Home-court advantage is given to the team
with the conference’s best record. Currently, that team is
Hawai’i (10-1, 8-0 MPSF), but UCLA (14-1, 10-1) is right
behind them. The Bruins need to win both games to claim the top
spot. “If we finish in first, then we would play all of our
post-season games at home, which would be very nice,” Scates
said. “If not, then we’ll probably have to travel to
Hawaii and play in front of 10,000 fans who aren’t exactly
supportive of us. I would much rather play here, so these matches
are very important for who finishes in first and gets home-court
advantage.” UCLA recognizes that wins over Hawai’i
won’t come easily, but anticipates the challenge they will
receive. “BYU tested us early on, but these matches will be a
test of how we’re doing and how far we’ve progressed
since BYU,” Johnson said. In UCLA’s last meeting with
Hawai’i ““ round one of last year’s MPSF playoffs
““ the Bruins cruised to a 3-0 victory.
STILL ON TOP: For the sixth consecutive week,
UCLA held onto the No. 1 ranking in the USA Today/CSTV Coaches
Poll. It is the longest the Bruins have held onto the top spot
since 2001. In establishing their place as the top team in the
nation, the Bruins have played 13 of their 15 matches against other
top-15 teams, winning 12.