Men’s volleyball to take on BYU

Men’s volleyball to take on BYU

By Ruben Gutierrez

Daily Bruin Staff

The first half of the regular season concludes this week when
the No. 2 UCLA men’s volleyball team hosts Brigham Young University
in two midweek matches at Pauley tomorrow and Wednesday. UCLA has
risen to the No.2 ranking in the first half of the season after
being picked fifth in multiple preseason polls.

Two Mountain Pacific Sports Federation victories over the No. 14
Cougars would bring the Bruins closer to their apparent destiny, a
probable fourth match at No. 1 Hawaii in the conference
championship match.

BYU (5-4 overall and MPSF) possesses the finest blocker UCLA
(14-3, 9-2) has encountered thus far this season in quick hitter
Ryan Miller. Miller has averaged better than two blocks per game
throughout the season – tops in MPSF and NCAA rankings – and
working through and around his block will be UCLA’s major goal.

"They have the leading blocker in the nation," UCLA head coach
Al Scates said. "He’s a freshman who gets 2.2 blocks per game. This
guy must be fantastic. We’re going to make him move, that’s for
sure. We’re not going to come right out there and challenge him.
It’ll be up to (setter) Stein (Metzger) to move him from pin to
pin. If he gets too effective going to the pin, then we’ll come
right at him for a while."

There is no dearth of blocking talent on the UCLA team, but it
appears that the Bruins will be without their top blocker this
week. Sophomore quick hitter Tom Stillwell was injured in a 15-9,
15-4, 16-14 sweep of No. 9 Lewis University on Friday, and
Stillwell was ranked only behind Miller in blocking average.
Stillwell came down hard in the second game Friday, turning his
ankle and spraining it.

Senior Jason Harper replaced Stillwell and will likely see more
action this week. According to Scates, there is little, if any,
drop-off in the effectiveness of the block with the experienced
Harper in the lineup.

"We don’t know how bad Stillwell is," Scates said. "It doesn’t
appear terribly swollen right now. (Harper) has played a lot for us
this season, although not lately, so he’s been ready to go. He came
in and blocked some balls for us and put some balls away. He was
ready."

The Flyers put up a valiant battle in Friday’s Wooden Center
matchup, but UCLA’s serving combined with junior opposite Paul
Nihipali’s blazing hot streak were too much for Lewis. Nihipali has
recorded astronomical numbers in recent matches and Friday was no
exception. Nihipali shot down the Flyers, hitting them with a
match-high 32 kills on a match-high .698 attack percentage.

Metzger had three UCLA service aces and the Bruins scored five
straight to pull out to a commanding lead early in the second game.
Metzger recorded another ace on his next turn at serve.

UCLA was also helped tremendously by the serving of back-row
subs Eric Vallely and Charlie Jackson. The Bruins closed out the
first game on a Vallely serve and after facing a 12-7 deficit in
the final game, Jackson brought UCLA back to life with two quick
points off his serve.

Later in the game, with the Bruins trailing 14-11, and facing
game point, the Bruins delivered four straight scores with swing
hitter Fred Robins at serve, taking a lead they would not
relinquish.

PATRICK LAM/Daily Bruin

UCLA blocker Tom Stillwell turned his ankle Friday.

BYU … possesses the finest blocker UCLA … has encountered
… in quick hitter Ryan Miller … and working through and around
his block will be UCLA’s major goal.

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