Spikers fly past Lewis to final

Friday, May 3, 1996

Bruins sweep Flyers in NCAA semi-final, face Rainbows in title
matchBy Mark Shapiro

Daily Bruin Staff

Collegiate volleyball aficionados could not have asked for a
better way to decide Saturday’s NCAA final than to have the team
ranked No. 1 in the nation for most of the season face the second
ranked squad, which just happens to be the defending champion.

That dream became a reality Thursday night when the UCLA men’s
volleyball team throttled Lewis University to earn a berth in
Saturday’s final opposite the University of Hawaii, which knocked
off Penn State.

This trip to the finals provides UCLA with a chance to defend
its national title and knock off a Rainbow team that defeated them
in two of three regular season match-ups.

Between these two squads, a standard of excellence has been set
this season that the rest of the nation could not measure up to.
Now they get a chance to slug it out for all the marbles.

"That’s the team that we wanted to play in the final because
they are the best team," UCLA head coach Al Scates said. "I think
this is what all the volleyball fans want. In fact, I think this is
what Hawaiian fans want."

With quality like this on the court, the Bruins will certainly
have their work cut out for them. The Rainbows boast perhaps the
strongest all-around lineup in the nation and the American
Volleyball Coaches Association co-player of the year, Yuval
Katz.

"They’re great servers, the best serving team we will see,"
Scates said. "They are great passers, we have to force them to make
some passing mistakes and we have to remember where Yuval is."

It’s hard to imagine a name like Yuval striking fear into
anyone, but in this situation, it is the name of a player who has
hoisted the Rainbows onto his lanky shoulders and carried them to
the brink of the promised land.

On Thursday, Katz and his massive spike torched the Nittany
Lions for 27 kills and when he faced the Bruins during the season,
he has simply feasted, posting a match high 43 kills in a regular
season defeat of UCLA. Needless to say, stopping Katz is the key to
the Bruins title hopes.

"There’s two ways to stop Yuval, you can block him or you can
dig him," Scates said. "We prefer to block him if at all possible.
We’re just going to get in his tendencies and get into stuff he
doesn’t hit very much."

Not only do the Bruins have to counter Katz on the court, they
have to fight through the noise of 4,000-plus Rainbow fans who are
making the journey to the mainland in the hopes of seeing Hawaii
win its first NCAA championship. These hordes will lend a certain
partisan volume in Pauley Pavilion, where UCLA has won 23
consecutive NCAA matches.

"I hope that our 4,000 Bruins can yell as loud as they do,"
Scates said. "It will be a raucous crowd if they can do that."

To earn their berth in the championship game, the Bruins had to
get past upstart Lewis University, a Division II squad that was
playing with the big boys in only its third year of NCAA play.

UCLA left nothing to chance as it rolled to a decisive 15-7,
15-8, 15-10 victory. Although the Flyers got out to early leads in
each game, they didn’t have the firepower to match UCLA.

"My biggest fears came true as far as our passing was
concerned," Lewis head coach David Duesner said. "UCLA is a good
jump serving team and they also block real well. The other part of
it was that we haven’t been in this situation before."

The Bruin block was able to hold Flyer swing hitter Victor
Rivera to only 11 kills, with only five in the first two games
combined. The formidable Bruin defense also held the Flyers to a
.179 attack percentage, well below their season average.

While Lewis fumbled to mount a cohesive offensive attack, UCLA
opposite hitter Paul Nihipali continued his torrid hitting,
notching 17 kills on a .375 attack percentage.

Even with numbers like that, Nihipali expected more of himself
in the match.

"Actually in the past I think I have played better against Lewis
than I did tonight," Nihipali said. "They did a pretty good job of
getting blockers in my face and making me think but luckily our
whole team was on."

The Bruins also received an unexpected boost from swing hitter
Ben Moselle, who replaced the injured Fred Robins.

Moselle stepped up in game one with an ace at the 11th
game-point to close out the first frame, and then, in game two, he
came up with one of his eight kills to put the Bruins up two games
to none.

ANDREW SCHOLER/Daily Bruin

UCLA standout Stein Metzger and Hawaii’s top player Yuval Katz
face off Saturday.