Volleyball vies to upend upstart Pacific
By Daily Bruin Staff
April 18, 1996 9:00 p.m.
Friday, April 19, 1996
By Ruben Gutierrez
Daily Bruin Staff
Men’s volleyball post-season; that time of the year when regular
season wins and losses mean nothing and the final outcome of the
match determines whether a team will continue its quest for a
national title, or depart for an early off-season.
Defending national champion UCLA, seeded third overall in the
MPSF tournament, hosts No. 9 Pacific (17-9 overall, 12-7 MPSF)
Saturday evening at 7 p.m. in Pauley Pavilion. Pacific is unseeded
and is making its first tournament appearance in just its fourth
year in the league. UCLA (20-5, 15-4) defeated the Tigers 15-7,
15-6, 16-14 in an earlier meeting.
Most of the Bruins’ attention will be focused toward stopping
outside hitter Greg Wakeham. He is a bludgeon for UOP, leading the
MPSF in kills average.
"They have Wakeham, who averages about seven and a half kills
per game," said UCLA head coach Al Scates. "We didn’t stop him up
there, at UOP, but we stopped the other guys. That’s how we beat
them. We can do it either way, we can stop him, or we can stop the
other guys. We have a variety of different ways to attack
them."
The Bruins will counter Wakeham’s one-man onslaught with far
superior balance and depth. Senior setter Stein Metzger enjoys
spreading the wealth and distributes his sets very evenly for the
Bruins.
"Stein plays intensely any time he just gets a little shot of
adrenaline going, and that can happen any time, even in practice,"
Scates said. "He called a real good game against UC Irvine, which
is why we hit over .500. He’s continued to mature as a play caller,
which is really important and only comes through experience. I
think he has over 5,000 assists now, so he has plenty of
experience."
In addition to Metzger, a member of two national championship
squads and last season’s American Volleyball Coaches Association
All-American first-team, Scates cited UCLA’s strength in the middle
as an advantage.
Sophomore Tom Stillwell is coming off of a superlative regular
season in which he topped the MPSF in blocks average, with over two
swats per game. Stillwell also hit for a team high .444 in MPSF
play.
His understudy, freshman quick hitter James Turner, is not far
behind and finished the regular season ranked fourth in the MPSF in
blocks average, also recording nearly two per game.
ANDREW SCHOLER/Daily Bruin
Senior setter Stein Metzger directs the Bruin’s attack.
