Noonan steps into volleyball’s starting lineup

Noonan steps into volleyball’s starting lineup

Sophomore moves

into Nygaard’s old

position at opposite

By Lawrence Ma

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

SANTA BARBARA –Reputedly the hardest hitter on the UCLA men’s
volleyball team, Matt Noonan has toiled in relative obscurity in
the program, after coming to UCLA in 1993 from Escondido’s San
Pasqual High School.

He redshirted in his first year at UCLA and then last season, as
a redshirt freshman, he played in just four matches. As an
opposite, it was pretty hard for Noonan to get anymore playing
time, because he had the Collegiate Player of the Year Jeff Nygaard
in front him.

But Noonan made the most of his playing time. He had a
career-high 22 kills and six digs against Hawaii last season.

By the time UCLA got to the NCAA Championships in Fort Wayne,
Ind., last May, UCLA head coach Al Scates said Noonan was ready to
start. But, still, he wasn’t out on the floor.

With the graduation of middle blocker Tim Kelly, Scates moved
Nygaard back to the middle, where he played in his first two
seasons.

Perfect. Just pencil in Noonan at opposite, right? Wrong. When
practice started this year, sophomore Paul Nihipali, who had
started in the middle in 1994, was challenging Noonan for the
starting spot at opposite. And, there is always the grueling UCLA
practice sessions to survive.

"Noonan was running about third (when he came in)," Scates said.
"But he played better and better in practice. And I make my
decisions on starters on how well they practice."

Last week at the UC Santa Barbara Collegiate Invitational,
Noonan finally got in as the starter when UCLA took on No. 7 UCSB.
He led the team with 19 kills from 44 attempts and dug eight balls.
Noonan looked a perfect fit for the Bruin offense, hitting
effectively from the back row and in transition. He says he feels
perfectly comfortable starting.

"I think it’s only a matter of time before we start to work well
together and start to know each other’s tendencies out there on the
court," Noonan said.

Noonan, like many Bruins, was tiring after 48 hours of
volleyball at the UCSB tourney. During the UCSB match, he was
experiencing some pain in his elbow and couldn’t deliver his usual
heat. Scates was close to substituting him.

"He hit a lot of balls," Scates said. "I was going to put
Nihipali in the third game, actually, and I had him warming up
during the second game. But then Matt showed a surge of energy, I
think when he saw Nihipali warming up. He put about five or six
away at the end of game two so I decided to go with him again."

Nygaard is seemingly the standard for all opposites, as he set
or tied four UCLA records in 1994, but Noonan says it’s hard to
make the comparison between him and Nygaard.

"I wouldn’t really make that comparison, because we’re two
different types of opposites," Noonan said. "We have different
tendencies and we do different types of things well. And he’s just
a great all-around player."

Scates sees Noonan more as an offensive weapon in transition,
while Nygaard was more of a defensive stopper.

"We’re just going to leave Noonan in the left side so that we
can set the ball to him in transition," Scates said. "With Nygaard,
it was a different strategy. We were putting him anywhere to stop
the opponent’s hitter. Noonan is in there to score for us. When we
have a swing for a score, I want him outside left. Nygaard was
there to be a stopper. It’s quite different."

* * *

With six out of Volleyball Monthly’s top seven teams from last
season playing, the UCSB Invitational was the tournament for
coaches to get a lot of homework for the season done.

"This is the type of tournament where you come up and basically
do your scouting for the whole year," Scates said.

In the preliminary rounds of the tournament, UCLA scrimmaged
against Mountain Pacific Sports Federation rivals USC, Pacific,
Pepperdine, Loyola Marymount and Brigham Young. The Bruins had
their way with everybody except BYU, losing 2-1 in pool play.
UCLA’s most impressive wins came against Pepperdine and USC.
Against the Waves, the score was 15-5, 15-3 and against the
Trojans, the Bruins won 15-5, 15-5.

"We played the best matches, if you want to call them matches,
against Pepperdine and ‘SC," Scates said. "We played about as well
as we can play. We crushed both of them. That’s when we had
intensity and energy. By the end of Saturday, we were just plain
tired."

Other MPSF teams at the tournament included Cal State
Northridge, Long Beach State, UC San Diego, and Stanford.

* * *

In news from the trainer’s table, Stein Metzger pulled his
stomach muscle during practice last week and the heavy workout at
the UCSB tournament made it worse. But the junior setter started
against UCSB and helped the Bruins to a 3-0 win.

John Speraw is suffering from tendonitis in both knees, an
ailment that could have resulted from a winter of inactivity.

"My parents moved back east, so I went back there for Christmas
break," he said. "It was 20 degrees the whole time I was there, and
so I never got out to run or do anything.

"And the first day of practice, I got off the plane and hopped
right onto the Wooden Center court, which is just horrible. Half an
hour into practice my knees were killing me."

Speraw has never suffered from tendonitis before. Both Metzger
and Speraw say they’re getting better, especially with the all
important NCAA Championship rematch against Penn State in the
Hawaii Tournament Wednesday.

"Yeah, I’ll be there," Speraw said. "Of course. Can’t miss
Hawaii."