Jonathan Acosta, senior captain of the top-ranked UCLA
men’s volleyball team, was walking off the court after Friday
night’s annual alumni match when a former teammate cut off
his path.
Former Bruin Brandon Taliaferro did not want to relive any of
the highlights of the exhibition match with Acosta. Instead, the
four-time All-American setter gave him some advice.
“Brandon told me that we needed to bring back the
“˜Bruin mentality,'” Acosta said. “He told
me that the team needed to enter every game expecting to win, and
it was my role as captain to translate that mentality to the rest
of the team.”
The advice could not have come at a better time for the Bruins
(16-2, 12-2 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation), who seem to have
their best chance of winning a national championship in the past
five seasons.
Taliaferro, a starter on the Bruins’ last championship
team in 2000, sees this year’s squad as a legitimate
contender for the championship.
“This year’s team is certainly the best I’ve
seen since I’ve been gone,” Taliaferro said.
“They have all the right pieces in place, but they need the
right mentality. They need to realize when you come to UCLA, you
expect to win a national title, whether you won the year before or
five years earlier.”
Since coach Al Scates took the reins of the UCLA program in
1963, the Bruins have never gone more than four years without
winning an NCAA title, and are 24-0 on their home court all-time in
the NCAA Tournament, which UCLA again will host this season.
“The pressure is definitely on us this season,”
Scates said. “But that is the way we want it. We want to be
the team on top.”
But over recent years, UCLA has been dethroned as collegiate
men’s volleyball’s top team. The Bruins have failed to
reach the NCAA Final Four the last three years, and suffered
through a losing MPSF season in 2003.
During this time, other schools have taken advantage of the
Bruins’ failures, recruiting foreign and more experienced
players that have evened the playing field in men’s
volleyball.
The last three NCAA champions, Hawaii, Lewis and BYU, in fact,
were led by foreign players on their way to the championship.
“The landscape of men’s volleyball has completely
changed,” said UCLA alumnus and current UC Irvine coach John
Speraw. “UCLA is not able to dominate like they used to,
especially with the influx of foreign athletes and greater number
of youth volleyball players.
“But if you still ask anyone which team is on top,
they’ll say UCLA.”
The responsibility of keeping the program on top falls to this
year’s seniors, who are trying to win their first NCAA
title.
“I don’t think the legacy of the UCLA men’s
volleyball program has been lost,” senior Kris Kraushaar
said. “We still have 18 national championship banners, but we
can’t rely on that fact forever. We need to uphold the
tradition.”
A major part of restoring that tradition this season has been
the renewed swagger and confidence of UCLA’s seniors.
No matter how much UCLA trails in a match, there’s a
belief among the team it can always come back. And when the Bruins
have jumped out to an early lead, they haven’t relinquished
it.
To former UCLA All-MPSF outside hitter Mark Williams, who was a
participant in Friday’s alumni match and a member of two UCLA
championship teams, the team reminds him of the Bruin championship
teams of old.
“In seasons past, some Bruin teams may have taken it easy
after getting up in the first game. But this team has the swagger,
almost cocky approach to the game that reminds me of the
championship teams I played on.”
Scates feels that what separates this year’s squad from
former teams is its ability to come through in the clutch.
“The ability to come back in pressure situations is
something I always look for, and this year’s team is the
first I’ve seen in a while with the ability to do
that,” Scates said.
The team remains cautious, however, because the NCAA
Championships are still two months away. In fact, with the Bruins
one game behind No. 2 Pepperdine, the Bruins would start the
postseason on the road if the playoffs began today. Scates and the
alumni have seen the Bruins achieve success early in the season,
only to see them falter in the postseason.
“I told the players exactly that on Friday,”
Williams said. “The season does not start ’til May, and
the players must realize that being No. 1 midway in the season is
meaningless if they don’t win the championship. They must
keep focused on that one goal.”