After Saturday’s championship loss, reporters asked UCLA
men’s volleyball coach Al Scates how his team would recover
from the disappointment. The smirk on his face should have told
them a lot. Because he has signed one of the top recruiting classes
in the nation for 2006, Scates is confident that the program will
be able to contend for a national title again next season.
“This is the largest and deepest class we have ever
signed,” Scates said. “You don’t have to worry
about there being too much of a drop-off from this year’s
team.” The recruiting class includes two top-50 national
recruits, Matt Wade and Sean O’Malley, who are expected to
contribute immediately. Wade, a setter from Mira Costa, specializes
in beach volleyball, while O’Malley hails from the same
Chicago suburban area as this year’s national player of the
year, Pepperdine’s Sean Rooney. “Wade is a
6’5″ setter who can do everything: set, block and
pass,” Scates said. “Having that experience playing on
the beach surely doesn’t hurt.” O’Malley,
meanwhile, is a 6’9″ opposite hitter who is on pace to
break all of Rooney’s hitting records in Illinois and will
compete with sophomore Steve Klosterman for the opposite hitter
position. Besides Klosterman, first-team All-Mountain Pacific
Sports Federation libero Tony Ker and setter Dennis Gonzalez are
the starters returning to next year’s team. “We have a
great core basis of young players returning,” Scates said.
“Who better to base your team off of then the best libero in
the nation?” As for the four starting seniors graduating,
there will be plenty of veterans coming off the bench to take their
spots. Outside hitter Damien Scott and middle blocker Nick Scheftic
will be seniors who have seen extended playing time in the past,
while setter Beau Peters and outside hitters Matt McKinney and Paul
George are former highly recruited juniors who are expecting to
finally have breakout seasons. But if UCLA is going to replicate
this year’s championship runner-up team, Scates believes the
team will need to have immediate results from its two most
anticipated recruits.
MCKINNEY INJURED: Scates revealed Monday that UCLA outside
hitter Matt McKinney, who had one hitting attempt in
Saturday’s championship match, had a shoulder injury that
prevented him from practicing the two weeks prior to
Saturday’s match. McKinney, who was seen wearing a sling on
his shoulder, was unable to hit the ball in practice because of the
pain in his arm. “It’s really unfortunate, what
happened to him,” Scates said. “We really could have
used him in the championship match.” McKinney’s recent
injury adds to a list of health problems, including a broken foot
last season and a prolonged illness this fall that kept him from
playing for extended minutes on the basketball team. Scates noted
that McKinney’s injury will heal in time, and that he should
be fully healthy in time for summer basketball practice.