Bruin m. volleyball proves itself in tourney sweep tourney

Bruin m. volleyball proves itself in tourney sweep tourney

By Ruben Gutierrez

Daily Bruin Staff

All questions regarding the UCLA men’s volleyball team’s drive
to defend its NCAA title were answered this weekend as it blew
through the UCSB Collegiate Invitational, defeating host Santa
Barbara to capture the tournament title.

UCLA (1-0) defeated the Gauchos 15-7, 15-5, 14-16, 17-16 at
Robertson Gym. Over the first two games of the match, it appeared
the Bruins would easily sweep the Gauchos, who had automatically
received the top seed in the tournament. With UCLA leading the
third game 4-3, however, middle blocker James Turner badly sprained
an ankle, a setback which turned the rest of the match into a
barnburner.

Game three turned into a 35 minute affair which saw the hosts
prevail by two, sapping even more energy from a UCLA squad which
was playing its seventh match in two days.

The match climaxed in the next game, which lasted an exhausting
46 minutes and four game-point rotations. Deadlocked at 16 with a
tournament-rule 17-point cap, UCLA setter and captain Stein Metzger
finally put away game point for the Bruin game, match and
tournament victory.

"The boys are sitting down after the match and they’re calling
them up to the All-Tournament team. I took a look at them and it
looked like we lost," UCLA head coach Al Scates said. "They could
hardly move. That was our seventh match in two days, so we were
pretty damn tired. It was a great win, though, because we outlasted
them. It was just mental toughness on our part."

All told, three UCLA players were selected to the All-Tournament
team. All-American setter Metzger led the team in hitting
efficiency in the finals with a .530 attack percentage and nine
kills. Opposite Matt Noonan had 22 kills and swing hitter Brian
Wells had 18 in the finals to make the team.

Scates was particularly impressed with the play of Noonan, a
regular substitute who poured it on for the Bruins in the earlier
tournament matches.

"It was in that (fifth match against Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne,
a 15-3, 15-4 UCLA victory) that I noticed how well Matt Noonan was
playing," Scates said. "He had been playing on the second team up
to that point and I just made a little note that we could put him
in if we needed him."

After losing the first game of the semi-finals to Pepperdine
15-12, Noonan replaced opposite Paul Nihipali, who had played well
throughout the tournament despite recovering from a shoulder
injury. The red-hot Noonan put away 10 kills on 14 attempts for a
team-high .643 average. UCLA won the game 15-9 and then prevailed
in the rally game 15-12 to advance to the finals.

Scates conceded that the tournament proved that the Bruins are
deep despite the loss of four starters from last year’s
championship squad.

"It shows us we’ve got a bench," Scates said. "We can go with
guys like (freshman middle blocker) Dan Farmer. I’m confident now I
can put him in with our first team and he can go out and produce. I
actually feel a lot better about this team than I did before the
tournament."

UCLA swept all four of its Friday matches in the best of three
format. The Bruins defeated Cal 15-3, 15-8, BYU 15-4, 15-6 and
Arizona 15-11, 15-6. In the fourth match, UCLA hammered Long Beach
15-6, 15-12 with Nihipali putting away 12 kills and swing hitter
Matt Taylor adding 13.Comments to [email protected]