IRVINE “”mdash; The No. 3 UCLA men’s volleyball team wanted
to prove that last year’s mediocre finish was a fluke. In
Friday’s match against No. 10 UC Irvine in front of a live TV
audience, they certainly presented a good case.
After losing two out of three meetings to UCI last year, the
Bruins (6-1) thoroughly dominated the Anteaters (3-4), sweeping
them, 30-24, 30-23, 30-22, in front of a raucous crowd of 1,873 at
the Bren Events Center.
The Bruins were powered by Paul Johnson and J.T. Wenger with 12
kills each. But the real star of the game was new setter Dennis
Gonzalez, who had a game-high 35 assists.
“Dennis was awesome tonight. He blocked better than he has
all season,” coach Al Scates said. “He draws a lot of
attention and that really opened it up for the outside
hitters.”
Gonzalez’s blocking effort translated to the rest of the
team as UCLA had its best blocking night of the season.
“(Blocking) started out as our weakness to begin the
season,” Scates said. “But we have been working on it
and it really displayed today.”
The Bruins concentrated their effort on containing Anteaters
star Jimmy Pelzel, who came into the game with a 5.41 kill average
per game, the highest in the nation.
Pelzel finished the match with 15 kills, while no one else on
the team finished with more than eight.
“We didn’t really stop (Pelzel),” Scates said.
“But we worked hard to contain everyone else and the game
plan worked.”
In the beginning of the match, with the score knotted at 8-8, it
looked like the competition was going to go back and forth.
However, from that point on the Bruins dominated, continuously
attacking the Anteaters’ front line as UCI’s outside
hitters repeatedly committed errors, combining for a total of 14
while accounting for only 10 kills.
Veterans Chris Peña and Paul Johnson were able to stabilize
the front line while freshman opposite Steve Klosterman contributed
nine kills.
“Paul Johnson has really come into his own,” Scates
said. “He hasn’t missed practice this year and playing
through the pain has really helped him.”
The game was special for many Bruin players from the Orange
County area because they had friends and family in attendance.
“It was extra added motivation to play in our home
area,” said Johnson, who hails from Mission Viejo. “We
lost to UCI here last year, and we did not want to disappoint our
fans.”