Netters look to wreak havoc in Lion’s den

Wednesday, April 10, 1996

M. volleyball faces Loyola Marymount on road to Final FourBy
Ruben Gutierrez

Daily Bruin Staff

The Loyola Marymount Lions will have to muster as much courage
as they can tonight if they hope to stand in the way of No. 2
UCLA’s trek down the yellow brick road to a berth in the men’s
volleyball NCAA Final Four ­ which will be held at Pauley
Pavilion.

With UCLA (19-4 overall, 12-3 MPSF) beginning to peak in the
late season-stretch run, home court advantage should mean little to
the lowly Lions (6-19, 3-14). Only three regular season matches
remain on the Bruin schedule, and head coach Al Scates expects
nothing less than three victories preceding UCLA’s foray into the
postseason.

"Our attitude is that we’re going to win all the rest of our
matches," Scates said. "We want to win two this week because that
will give us first place in the Mountain Division. That means we’ll
get University of Pacific or Stanford in the first match here when
conference playoffs start. It also would mean we wouldn’t play
Hawaii until the final match, and we’d probably play Long Beach in
the semifinals, which is how we want to do it."

Though Scates contends that the Bruins still are not playing
their best ball of the season, several players have made
significant strides in their individual game at this critical
point. Senior setter Stein Metzger, whom Scates considered the best
setter in collegiate volleyball at the beginning of the season, is
particularly sharp after garnering MVP honors in the UCLA
Collegiate Classic last weekend.

Swing hitter Brian Wells played his best match of the season in
UCLA’s three-game snuffing of Cal State Northridge last Friday.
Though the 6-foot-1-inch Wells is shorter than most blockers he
faces, he is far from being vertically challenged and his
explosiveness makes him especially dangerous.

Blocking traditionally has been UCLA’s strong suit, and this
season is no exception. Quick hitters James Turner, a freshman, and
sophomore Tom Stillwell combine to form possibly the most effective
blocking duo in the conference. To the chagrin of many a rival
coach, Stillwell’s blocking is improving and Turner has turned his
hitting up a notch.

As if the progress UCLA’s starters have made wasn’t enough to
make opponents cringe, the bench is also getting deeper. Several
key Bruin subs have had exceptional showings of late, and Scates
feels comfortable inserting them in any situation.

"Last week was a good week in that we saw Dan Farmer come in on
Friday and play great against Northridge," Scates said. "I was
planning on using him Saturday, but Turner had his best spiking
night of the year and Stillwell had his best blocking night, so he
never got off the bench. Taylor came in against ‘SC and played real
well and Moselle has been playing great for Nihipali."

Although the Bruins face No. 3 Long Beach State on the road
Friday, they are definitely not looking past LMU. Despite their
bleak record, the Lions have the reputation of being a scrappy
bunch, and they have illustrated it to UCLA once before, taking the
third game from them in Westwood before the Bruins eventually
prevailed 15-13, 15-4, 9-15, 15-6.