Spikers gear up for tough matches over finals week

  EDWARD LIN/Daily Bruin Senior outside hitter Mark
Williams passes the ball against UC Santa Cruz.

By Amanda Fletcher
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

There is only one more match before the No. 3 UCLA men’s
volleyball team gets a week-long break from mandatory
practices.

Too bad the match is against No. 7 Long Beach State.

After defeating two East Coast opponents, the Bruins (16-5, 8-3
MPSF) are heading into one of their most challenging weeks of the
season.

“It’s more competitive this year because of rally
scoring. It’s easier for teams to upset,” UCLA
Assistant Coach John Speraw said. “Everyone seems to be
beating everybody. I’m not sure that would happen
otherwise.”

Results in the MPSF, the most competitive conference in the
country, reflect the parity caused by the new rally scoring system.
For example, No. 1 BYU defeated UCLA, which defeated No. 4 (tie)
USC, which, in turn, defeated BYU.

“(Rally scoring) makes what used to be a dominating team
vulnerable and it gives weaker teams an advantage. It only takes a
few points here and there to make a difference,” Speraw
said.

BYU is currently alone in first place with only one loss; Hawaii
trails closely with two. UCLA, Long Beach and No. 4 Stanford all
have three in league. Coming into the second half of the season,
every team is charging hard hoping to gain the advantage of playing
host come MPSF playoff time.

“We still have a chance to host in the playoffs so we have
to win every game,” Speraw said.

First, the Bruins have got to take a little trip to The
Beach.

In an attempt to avenge an early season loss to Long Beach
State, the Bruins will travel to The Pyramid Saturday for a 7 p.m.
match.

Long Beach State (12-4, 7-3) defeated the Bruins in their first
MPSF match on Jan. 26, with UCLA captain Mark Williams out with a
high ankle sprain. Now that Williams is back, however, UCLA is a
different team.

“I don’t think we did anything particularly well
against Long Beach,” Speraw said. “We’ve made
tremendous improvements in every aspect.”

They’ll need those improvements against what Scates calls
the “best digging team in the conference.”

Add into the mix Long Beach senior opposite hitter Dave
McKienzie and the challenge becomes even more formidable. Tallying
double-digit kills in 13 of 14 matches, McKienzie leads the 49ers
in kills and digs per game, averaging 5.17 and 1.85,
respectively.

But The Beach recently split two games in the ASICS/Active Ankle
Beach Bash on March 8 and 9, sweeping IPFW but losing to Penn
State. The four-game loss to Penn broke the 49ers’ home-court
winning streak. They had accumulated 39 consecutive wins at The
Pyramid dating back to 1998.

The loss, however, came with all but one starter sitting the
bench.

“They’ve been laying low. They haven’t played
their lineup in their last three matches,” Scates said.
“I don’t know why, but they’re saving themselves
for us.”

But Long Beach is only the first stop on the bumpy road the
Bruins are riding on. After finals, UCLA will have to deal with the
Hawaii Warriors not once but twice.

Fortunately for the Bruins, they’ll be playing on their
own turf.

“I’d like to go (to Hawaii) for a vacation but this
is business,” Speraw said. “We need to take care of
business and we have a better chance of doing that at home.
They’re a very difficult team to face (in Hawaii).”

Coming off double match wins against No. 6 Pepperdine and
Stanford, the Warriors are currently the hottest team in the
conference, holding first place in the Pacific Division of the
MPSF.

Hawaii is led by sophomore outside hitter Costas Theocharidis,
who was named the AVCA Newcomer of the Year last season and is
currently averaging a team high 4.63 kills per game.

“He’s been carrying them,” Scates said.
“Everybody has somebody carrying them except UCLA. We always
do it collectively. We spread the wealth. Everybody else always
goes to one player and it works well with players with the ability
like Theocharidis.”

Despite a string of important matches, the Bruins have one more
thing to worry about ““ finals. But Scates doesn’t
consider the players’ finals a problem. He actually believes
the timing is advantageous.

“It’s probably good to play right now for us,”
he said. “We’ve got all the starters in the lineup and
we haven’t had it that way all season.”

For a team that has been plagued by the flu, a high ankle
sprain, numerous stomach pulls and hip flexors, and one case of
pinkeye, this may be the healthiest the team has been since the new
year. And though Father Time may heal all wounds, don’t give
him all the credit; there is something to be said for pure
toughness.

“People are learning to play through injuries,”
Scates said. “Everybody is a little banged up, but it’s
not enough to keep anybody out of the lineup right now.”

With three tough matches and the the added pressure of finals,
when it’s all over, the break won’t come a minute too
soon.

The Bruins just hope they can get through it first.