Given the opportunity, Brennan Prahler seized it, took advantage
of the playing time, and made his presence known on the court in
his second start of the season.
The senior finished with 15 kills and led the team on the night
with an average hitting percentage of .560, as the top-ranked
Bruins were able to outplay the No. 9 Cardinal in four games
(30-21, 30-20, 31-33 and 30-26) on Thursday night.
“I am getting more comfortable on the court,” said
Prahler, who hit 15 of his 25 shots. “I just want to be
around.”
After Bruin sophomore Steve Klosterman was relegated to the
bench two games ago, Prahler has continued to give UCLA consistent
play.
After the Bruins dominated in the first two games, Stanford
picked up its play in the final half of the match, drastically
turning its team hitting averages around, but even that could not
catapult the Cardinal past the momentum that the Bruins built.
“Stanford gives us a good match every year,” UCLA
coach Al Scates said. “The third and fourth games were much
more representative of how they can play.”
With key contributions from all around the court, the Bruins
were consistent throughout the match.
Freshman libero Tony Ker did his job well, as his efforts
accounted for 20 of the 58 recorded team digs.
“Tony is really starting to feel comfortable in his
position,” Scates said. “We switched him around
recently and his quickness helped us out-dig Stanford (58-50)
tonight.”
At the net, the Bruins had key contributions from all members.
Junior Dennis Gonzalez, who tallied 67 assists on the night, was
able to scatter the ball around the net so effectively that four
Bruin players had over a .500 hitting average.
Senior Paul Johnson lead UCLA with an astounding 22 kills out of
33 attempts (.545).
“Johnson had one of his better efforts tonight,”
Scates said. “Sometimes they had two people on him, but they
just couldn’t stop him.
They just couldn’t stop Johnson.”
Not many teams have.
Johnson’s steady play is a constant source of points for
the Bruins, but Thursday night, it was Prahler who captured the
spotlight with his intensity.
Starting after a promising performance against UC San Diego,
Prahler came out and was a noticable contributor against the
Cardinal.
However, his starting position has yet to be set in stone.
Scates will have to decide whether Prahler will remain in the
starting lineup for the rest of the season. But Prahler is more
concerned with the success of the Bruins than whether he
starts.
“But even if I don’t start, we’ll still do
great,” he said.