Scates still waiting for 1,000th victory

  NICOLE MILLER/Daily Bruin Rich Nelson
reaches to set the ball during a 3-2 loss to Long Beach State on
Friday. The Bruins face California Baptist next. Long
Beach d. UCLA 30-28,33-35,28-30,30-19,15-6

By Amanda Fletcher
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

UCLA men’s volleyball coach Al Scates has waited more than
38 years for his 1,000th victory. And with the Bruins (4-3) Friday
loss to No. 1 Long Beach State (4-4), Scates will have to wait a
little bit longer.

In a match where the first three games could’ve gone to
either team, the 49ers took control of games four and five to
defeat No. 6 UCLA 30-28, 33-35, 28-30, 30-19, 15-6.

With his 1,000th victory put off for another night, the record
was secondary to his team’s defensive performance.

“It’s disappointing that we didn’t dig
balls,” Scates said. “We just weren’t picking up
any balls that hit the block. Those balls should be picked
up.”

The absence of senior opposite hitter Mark Williams, who was out
with a high ankle sprain suffered during warmups in Hawaii, was
strongly felt on the Bruins’ defensive end.

Without him, Long Beach opposite hitter Dave McKienzie, who led
all players with 40 kills, wreaked havoc on the UCLA defense with
his off-speed hits and roll shots.

“(McKienzie’s) a smart hitter, He’ll hit off
speed, he’ll hit off the block,” Scates said.
“Our best ball handler (Williams) was out of the lineup.
He’d be coming up with all those off speed shots.”

Junior Matt Komer moved from outside to opposite to fill in for
Williams, but he couldn’t help a flailing Bruin squad that
dug only 25 balls to Long Beach’s 50.

Giving up a close first game, the Bruins fought back into extra
points to take game two on the fourth game point.

With the momentum on their side, UCLA brought the match to 2-1
behind a .457 hitting clip in game three.

“We had lapses in concentration when we weren’t
connecting well,” McKienzie said. “We didn’t
think it would go five. They played well for awhile.”

Long Beach head coach Alan Knipe agreed that his team
shouldn’t have lost the second two games.

“We truly believe that we gave them those games,” he
said.

So in games four and five, the Beach took them back.
UCLA’s hitting percentages plummeted to a .094 in game four
and -.231 in game five. In the last two games, Long Beach
outblocked UCLA 8.5 to one.

“They played better than us throughout the whole
match,” Naeve said. “But we didn’t even play to
our potential. That’s what I’m disappointed about; that
we have so much potential and we’re not even there
yet.”

Though the Bruins defense left much to be desired, four players
finished the night with double digit kills: junior Ian Burnham led
the team with 16, followed by Cameron Mount (14), Adam Naeve (11)
and Scott Morrow (10).

“We were really hot hitting even though we had less
swings,” Scates said. “But we never did play good
defense.”

Without another MPSF match scheduled for another week, the
Bruins hope to rest up and get in some valuable practice time with
the starters who have been missing at various times due to injury
or illness.

“It’ll help getting all six guys together to
practice,” Scates said.