The UCLA men’s volleyball team already shut down one of
the nation’s elite hitters this season, an accomplishment the
Bruins hope to repeat tonight when they face UC Santa
Barbara’s Evan Patak.
In their win over Pepperdine on Jan. 19, the Bruins held Sean
Rooney, a player UCLA coach Al Scates once referred to as
“the best hitter in the nation,” to a mere .222 hit
percentage.
The Bruins (9-1, 5-1 MPSF) will have to show similar fortitude
against Patak, who leads the MPSF in kills with 196 and was chosen
as this week’s National Player of the Week by the American
Volleyball Coaches Association.
Last week against Stanford, Patak broke the NCAA record for
kills in a single match when he recorded 48 en route to amassing 53
points, also a record.
Just like it did against Rooney, UCLA realizes that containing
Patak is key to victory.
“Once we see (Patak’s) tendencies, we’ll be
able to completely shut him down,” senior Allan Vince
said.
“A lot of the game is mental, and once Santa Barbara sees
that their best player is shut down, they’ll shut down too.
We did the same thing with Rooney. If the team has one really good
player and we dominate him, the team shuts down.”
And even though the No. 7 Gauchos (5-5, 5-2) boast last
year’s MPSF kills leader, the top-ranked Bruins don’t
fear going up against a one-dimensional offense. Scates believes
it’s easier to construct a game plan against a team with one
dominant player than a team that offers a multi-pronged attack.
“We’ll focus on him, see his shots, and put good
blockers in front of him,” Scates said. “He could get
up to half the sets, but it might be difficult to get two blockers
on him because they also have strong middles. If we can serve tough
and force bad passes, everything becomes even easier.”
Though UCSB’s 5-5 record does not exactly instill fear
into its opponents, the Bruins know they’ll be facing a team
that’s better than its record suggests.
After losing three matches in its own tournament to start the
year, UCSB has significantly improved, recording wins over No. 5
Long Beach State and No. 4 BYU.