Thursday, January 23, 1997
By Vytas Mazeika
Daily Bruin Contributor
"I came to UCLA to win national championships," former
All-American setter Stein Metzger said.
"It’s kind of a frightening situation coming here. There’s so
many other guys, you never know if you’re going to play or not. But
if you do get to play and be on the team you will win a national
championship.
"Nobody has gone four years without winning at least one. And
there is only one group that had only one; everyone else had at
least two or more."
Metzger ended up with three NCAA titles, but it could have
easily been four. In 1994 UCLA had what Metzger considered the best
squad he ever played for, but they lost in five games to Penn State
in the NCAA final.
Since that loss, UCLA has compiled a 57-6 record and two NCAA
championships.
The 1995 team that went 31-1 was superior to the 1996 team that
went 26-5 for one obvious reason  experience.
With four senior starters (player of the year Jeff Nygaard,
captain Erik Sullivan, Kevin Wong and John Speraw) and Metzger, the
1995 team was blessed with experience.
"We had four seniors starting on that team, which is very
unusual," UCLA head coach Al Scates said. "Talking about
leadership, that was an awesome team."
The humbling loss suffered against Penn State in 1994 left the
team with a sour taste in its mouth. The loss forced the seniors to
regroup and collect themselves for one final championship run.
"What helped us (in 1995) was losing (to Penn State)," Metzger
said. "We got refocused and didn’t think we were the big shots that
we were. We worked harder. We didn’t take people lightly. I think
that was really important."
UCLA suffered one loss that season.
"They could have easily gone undefeated (in 1995)," Scates said.
"They lost a fluke match to Ball State … in a little gym. It
seemed that every ball we dug hit the ceiling.
"It was a match that probably did us a lot of good in the long
run … By the time we got into the nationals nobody was going to
beat us."
And nobody did.
The 1996 season was an entirely different story because only
Metzger and junior opposite hitter Paul Nihipali returned as
starters.
"We’ve managed to win (the national championship) with three
starters returning on several occasions; rarely with two," Scates
explained. "That is tough to do.
"There were plenty of teams that could have beaten us last
season. We could have lost 10 times last season. But we
didn’t."
The team lost five times (twice to Hawaii) on its way to a
second national championship. The resiliency of this never-say-die
team showed in their two most important victories of the
season.
First, there was the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF)
Championship match against UC Santa Barbara. It was a must-win
situation for both teams because Hawaii was virtually guaranteed
the wild card to the Final Four. UCLA prevailed in five sets behind
Nihipali’s valiant effort.
After tearing his bicep tendon earlier in the year, Nihipali
demonstrated true courage by setting school records of 52 kills
(shattering his old mark of 36) in 88 attempts.
"He pretty much used up what was left of his arm because by the
time we got to the NCAA finals he didn’t have much power left in
his right arm," Scates said.
The second pivotal match was the NCAA final against Hawaii. Game
four proved to be the defining moment of the 1996 season. Playing
in front of a hostile crowd at Pauley Pavilion (enough Hawaii
faithful travelled to overwhelm Bruin fans) and down 2-1, a defeat
seemed inevitable.
The turning point in the match was when freshman James Turner
received a red card after disputing a call by the referee.
"Instead of our ball serving 7-7, it became 8-7 when they called
the ball out and 9-7 when they gave him a red card," Scates
explained. "At that point I couldn’t wait any longer. I had to put
Trong (Nguyen) in to serve. He came in and served an ace to get us
back to 8-9 … Then he served and went over to the left sideline
from the right sideline and dug a ball. That was tremendous."
After tying the score at 9-9, UCLA went on to win the fourth
game 17-15. Then the Bruins won both the decisive fifth set (15-12)
and the NCAA championship.