Great play sets Bruins up for win over Gauchos

Thursday, February 19, 1998

Great play sets Bruins up for win over Gauchos

VOLLEYBALL: Despite a new lineup and limited practice time, UCLA
goes in for quick, merciful kill

By Grace Wen

Daily Bruin Staff

Chalk up another win for the UCLA men’s volleyball team.

The Bruins took even less time to dispose of UCSB than it did
for the San Diego schools. In less than an hour-and-a-half, UCLA
swept the Gauchos 15-6, 15-9, 15-4.

"It was a new lineup with two days’ practice, so I was pleased
with it," UCLA head coach Al Scates said.

"Ben (Moselle) got off to a pretty slow start that first game.
We started out pumping him a lot of sets just to see if he could do
it but he got it home. He made some real nice blocks so it gives us
yet more flexibility than we had prior to this match."

Moselle, who moved to the opposite position after Evan Thatcher
was sidelined with back spasms, led the team in hitting with 12
kills and two errors in 21 attempts for a .476 clip. Normally a
swing hitter, he also recorded two solo blocks and two block
assists.

"I still have a lot of things to learn," Moselle said. "But, I
like the hitting aspect. I like to hit a lot of sets and I like to
stay in the flow of hitting.

"I blocked a few balls at the end so I was starting to get
comfortable blocking on the right side. I don’t have a feel for the
digging yet."

But it wasn’t only Moselle who had the offensive firepower. The
Bruin offense overpowered the Gauchos. UCLA hit .439 while holding
UCSB to a measly .200.

Junior Fred Robins spiked 10 kills in 17 attempts with no errors
for a .588 hitting percentage. Robins also posted a team-high 12
digs. In his first match back from injury, sophomore Adam Naeve
also contributed 12 kills. UCLA also outblocked the Gauchos nine to
five. In addition the Bruins aced Santa Barbara nine times
throughout the night. Sophomore setter Brandon Taliaferro did the
most damage as he blasted a match-high five aces. However, the
Gauchos did out-dig the Bruins 43 to 37.

"Santa Barbara made some fantastic digs out there tonight,"
Scates said. "The problem was that we put the big block in their
face and they hit the ball out."

In game one, the Bruins never trailed and held leads of seven,
eight, and nine points. The Bruins set the tone for the night as
UCLA easily took game one.

Although Santa Barbara had an early lead in game two, the Bruins
took advantage of five straight hitting errors to go up 8-5. The
Gauchos would close the gap to two at 11-9 but a kill by Fred
Robins and three more hitting errors by the Gauchos would end the
game. The Bruins dominated game three and effectively eliminated
the Gauchos.

"We got beaten by a better team obviously," UCSB head coach Ken
Preston said. "I thought we passed the ball really well. We just
didn’t execute on the offensive end of it."