Things get ugly in narrow UCLA victory

Friday, January 16, 1998

Things get ugly in narrow UCLA victory

M.VOLLEYBALL Bruins barely overturn Loyola Marymount in close
match laden with errors

By Grace Wen

Daily Bruin Staff

The best teams in collegiate volleyball are the teams that can
win even when they’re having an off night. This was certainly the
case for the No. 2 UCLA men’s volleyball team last night.

The Bruins (4-0) swept Loyola Marymount 15-9, 15-12, 15-12
before a small crowd of 432 at Gersten Pavilion.

"It’s good to win ugly once in awhile but a win is a win," UCLA
head coach Al Scates said. "It’s not the best we’ve played but we
hung in there and we won it in three. We’ll get better."

Lion head coach Jim McLaughlin agreed.

"The Bruins didn’t play as good as they could have and we didn’t
play as good as we could have," he said. "There were a lot of
errors and pretty much the team that made the least errors was
going to take it tonight."

It definitely wasn’t a pretty match for the Bruins, who were
aced nine times during the match by LMU’s blistering jump serve.
Outside hitter Corin Bemus and opposite Tim Farmer did the most
damage, each launching four aces while outside hitter Reid Priddy
had one. Farmer also led the attack for the Lions with a match-high
20 kills.

In game one, UCLA jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead off of LMU’s
hitting errors but the Lions tied the match with two of Bemus’ ace
serves. UCLA took a 4-3 lead with a kill by sophomore Evan
Thatcher. The Bruins scored nine straight points before LMU called
a time out. The timeout proved key as the Lions mounted a six-point
run before UCLA won the game.

In game two, the normally stable passing tandem of outside
hitters Ben Moselle and Fred Robins was broken up when Scates
inserted freshman Mark Williams into the lineup.

Williams came off the bench after UCLA squandered a five-point
lead and was losing 11-12. The substitution proved pivotal as
rattled off the next four points while holding LMU.

"Williams came in and really turned things around," Scates said.
"We got some real quick blocks because he really penetrated (at the
net)."

But, it wasn’t his blocking that was the most impressive. The
freshman spiked nine kills with no errors for a .900 hitting
percentage.

Although LMU led twice in game three, the Bruins never faltered
as they closed out the match.

Daily Bruin File Photo

Senior Tom Stillwell had a team-high 11 kills, four blocks.