This team never stopped believing in itself when it had every
reason to.
This team never gave up at times when it would have been
understandable to.
For these reasons, the members of the UCLA men’s
volleyball team can call themselves champions.
This team didn’t have a single All-American on it. It
didn’t have the talent of many of the great UCLA championship
teams of the past.
More than halfway through the Mountain Pacific Sports
Federation’s conference season, the Bruins were stuck in
ninth place before reeling off 14 wins in a row to win the
championship.
But UCLA kept believing and improving. And that’s what
makes this team truly special.
“I’m very proud of this team. Actually, I have to
count this as one of the best championships I’ve ever coached
because our team was 5-9 in the league and these guys never doubted
we could do this,” UCLA coach Al Scates said.
“They worked so hard for this all year and believed in
each other, and that really made a difference. We weren’t
going to make the league playoffs if we hadn’t gone on this
run. They get down, and they just have a lot of fight in
them.”
Saturday’s championship match was a perfect example of
that.
It may have been a sweep, but UCLA was trailing late in all
three games. The Bruins were down 23-21 in Game 1 before pulling
off a 4-0 run.
In Game 2, they were down 19-12 before making a huge
comeback.
And in Game 3, they were down 23-20 before that last long 5-0
run put them ahead for good.
That’s what great teams do. They come back and play at
their best when it’s needed the most ““ at the end of
close games.
And UCLA never lost a Game 3, 4 or 5 during its 14-match winning
streak to close the year. The Bruins saved their best for last in
those matches.
“The whole season, once it got down to the end we just
turned it on really hard,” junior opposite Steve Klosterman
said.
“Nothing hits the floor, we end up getting big blocks,
they end up hitting out, and we end up with an ace here and there.
It just always seems to work out in our favor. We really seem to
turn on when it matters, and it’s been like that all
season.”
We’re lucky here at UCLA, having seen now 12 NCAA
Championships in the last four years (and for you old-timers, 98
all-time).
Most of them came in the completely dominant fashion. We knew
all year long watching those teams they had an excellent chance to
win it all.
Outside of the players and coaches on the volleyball team (who
told the doubters like me all season that this team could win it
all), few thought this UCLA team could actually win a
championship.
Even with their 14-match winning streak, they still only
finished seventh in their conference and had to win a play-in match
just to get to the conference quarterfinals.
Once there, they had to beat the No. 2, 3 and 4-ranked teams in
the country just to get to the NCAA Final Four ““ which is
probably the most impressive postseason run I’ve seen by any
UCLA team in recent years.
When you really look at it, beating Indiana Purdue-Fort Wayne
and Penn State at the NCAA Championships was really among the less
impressive things the Bruins did during their postseason run.
Playing in a conference with the top seven teams in the country,
UCLA played much tougher competition before the Final Four.
But they still had to finish the job. IPFW was the best the
Midwest had to offer, and while Penn State was only ranked No. 11
in the country, the Nittany Lions were playing on their home court,
where top-ranked UC Irvine couldn’t beat them only two days
earlier.
This team wasn’t about to let 5,453 fans at Penn
State’s Rec Hall intimidate them, though. These Bruins had
battled through much more difficult tasks for the latter part of
the season.
Sure, this team wasn’t one of those NCAA champions who
went undefeated and stayed on cruise control for the whole year.
The Bruins had to earn their way in, believing in themselves in
times of adversity.
And that’s what makes this team truly special.
E-mail Quiñonez at gquinonez@media.ucla.edu.