Volleyball achieves redemption
Bruins avenge NCAA finals loss to Penn St. with sweep in
Hawaii
By Eric Branch
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
It’s kind of like beating up the kid who broke your favorie toy.
It doesn’t make things even, but you feel a whole lot better
afterwards.
Last night, eight months after Penn State stunned the UCLA men’s
volleyball team in the national championship match in Indiana, the
Bruins exacted some measure of revenge. Squaring off in the Hawaii
Tournament in Honolulu, UCLA spent the night kicking around the
defending national champs en route to a 15-9, 15-11, 15-10
victory.
"Nothing needs to be said about what happened last year (against
Penn State)," UCLA senior quick hitter Jeff Nygaard said. "This was
a very important win for us."
For a while it seemed that last years’ nightmare would travel
from Fort Wayne to the Big Island. The Nittany Lions jumped out to
a 9-3 opening game lead, forcing UCLA to call two time outs in that
span.
"Fortunately we had nice long television timeouts because at
that point we needed them," UCLA head coach Al Scates said. "We
were just trying to get a sideout and we came back and reeled off
12 straight points. We just steadied out."
Along with battling another defecit in game two (8-11), the
Bruins were battling against unfamiliarity. UCLA changed their
usual rotation for the match to limit the movement of injured
junior setter Stein Metzger (stomach pull).
"I’m pleased with the character of this team," Scates said.
"After practicing all fall and winter with the same offense we had
to change it two days before this match. The guys sucked it up
pretty well."
On the night Nygaard led the Bruins with 14 kills. Senior quick
hitter John Speraw posted a match-high .750 hitting percentage
while senior swing hitter Kevin Wong tracked down a match-high 13
digs.
Despite the Bruin’s dominance, Scates realizes UCLA will be
seeing more of the Nittany Lions later this season.
"We expect to be in Springfield (for the NCAA Final Four) and we
expect to see Penn State there."