M. volleyball rides Waves to three 15-7 game wins
By Daily Bruin Staff
March 7, 1996 9:00 p.m.
M. volleyball rides Waves to three 15-7 game wins
By Ruben Gutierrez
Daily Bruin Staff
Seven proved to be an unlucky number for the No. 5 Pepperdine
men’s volleyball team Thursday night as No. 2 UCLA swept the Waves
in three consecutive 15-7 games to record another Mountain Pacific
Sports Federation win in Malibu.
If a picture won’t do, sometimes an expression is also worth a
thousand words. The shocked look on the face of Pepperdine (9-6
overall, 4-5 MPSF) outside hitter George Roumain after he was
stuffed at the net by UCLA (13-3, 9-2) opposite Paul Nihipali spoke
volumes last night. Roumain, fresh off a 43 kill performance
against UC Irvine last week, was held in check by Nihipali for most
of the evening and the matchup proved crucial to the outcome.
"Paul was making good moves and I think that was the key," UCLA
head coach Al Scates said.
Nihipali, who had a couple of big games of his own with a
school-record 39 kill showing, then 34 kills in two matches against
No. 1 Hawaii last weekend, again paced the Bruin attack with a
team-high 15 kills. Quick hitter Tom Stillwell added 15 kills on a
.579 hitting average for UCLA.
The play of All-America setter Stein Metzger again proved
instrumental in the victory.
Metzger came out firing with a patented razor-sharp jump serve
which Pepperdine could not handle throughout the match. Time after
time, UCLA scored points with Metzger providing service, either
coming up with an ace on a laser jumper or scoring through
impeccable set selection.
"His jump serve got us off to a good lead in every game," Scates
said. "He had probably three aces, but more importantly, we scored
when he was serving – a lot of points. Stein has been the real
leader of this team all season. He also set well tonight, with a
lot of good passing from (swing hitters Brian) Wells and (Fred)
Robins."
UCLA won’t get even one day of rest, as they host No. 9 Lewis
University tomorrow at 4 p.m. in the Wooden Center. The upstart
Flyers were undefeated until they suffered a loss at Ohio State
last month. Comments to [email protected]
