Monday, 4/7/97
Bruins break the Waves with win
Exemplary jump serving, teamwork and determination give UCLA the
advantage in match
By Vytas Mazeika
Daily Bruin Contributor
What a difference two months make.
On Friday night the UCLA men’s volleyball team avenged an
embarrassing loss suffered against Pepperdine earlier this season.
The Bruins (18-3, 14-2 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) defeated
the Waves (17-6, 12-4) in four games, 7-15, 15-10, 15-10,
15-10.
The UCLA players were about as emotional as they had been all
season long. The Bruins heightened their intensity, and the fire in
their eyes indicated their desire to win this match.
"It is a great win because we are going into the playoffs,"
Bruin senior Trong Nguyen said. "We need the momentum, and we need
the home-court advantage."
During the first game it looked like Pepperdine would duplicate
the three-game thrashing it handed UCLA on February 13. The Waves,
on their way to outblocking the Bruins 34 to 17, touched most of
UCLA’s hits. Senior Paul Nihipali, UCLA’s Player of the Year
candidate, hit a meager -.150 in the first game.
But UCLA middle blocker Tom Stillwell, who led UCLA with a .500
hitting percentage, had a blistering first game that required
Pepperdine Coach Marv Dunphy to double team him.
"They had to have two blockers on Tom Stillwell to shut him
down," UCLA head coach Al Scates said. "They slowed him down, but
that opened up things for other guys."
Bruin setter Brandon Taliaferro spread the ball around on his
way to tallying 66 assists. And with only one blocker assigned to
him, Nihipali rebounded to lead all hitters with 25 kills. But
Taliaferro and Nihipali’s influence was best felt when both were
handed yellow cards for arguing two questionable calls with the
referee in the third game. The vocal and emotional outburst seemed
to spark the Bruins and provide the necessary motivation to defeat
Pepperdine.
Scates knew that the Bruins needed to serve well in order to
disrupt Pepperdine’s trio of hitters – Kevin Barnett (20 kills),
George Roumain (19) and Peter Kodascy (14). The Bruin jump servers
(Adam Naeve, Ben Moselle, Eric Vallely and Nguyen) combined for
five aces and only ten service errors.
"We served tough," Scates said. "Our jump servers came
through."
Crowd favorite Nguyen twice substituted for Stillwell to serve.
In Game Three Nguyen came in and stopped a 4-0 run by Pepperdine
that had closed the Waves to 11-10. Then in Game Four Nguyen came
in at 12-10 to serve an ace. He eventually served out the
match.
"I just have to pump up myself to get my serve in," Nguyen said.
"I told myself earlier today that I am going to jump serve the crap
out of the ball … If I get my serve (in) it is some easy points
for my team; we get some momentum, and we just roll and win."
And for now the Bruins enjoy both the momentum and the inside
track on the home-court advantage for the MPSF playoffs.AARON
TOUT
Tom Stillwell moves in for a kill against Pepperdine.