One More Time

 

By Diamond Leung
Daily Bruin Contributor

Somebody call the cops. The UCLA men’s volleyball team
essentially stole the MPSF Championship last week. They had no
business winning the match.

Forget the fact that Hawai’i dominated every statistical
category of the match. If it weren’t for rally point scoring,
the newly implemented scoring format in men’s collegiate
volleyball, the Bruins might be sitting at home right now singing
the blues. Instead, they’re MPSF Champions playing tonight
for a spot in the NCAA Championship match.

“The stronger team does not win as often as it used to in
sideout scoring,” UCLA Head Coach Al Scates said.
“There’s some element of luck involved in rally
scoring.”

Lucky for the Bruins the Hawai’i match didn’t go on
any longer. By the time the Warriors put together their game and
started to come back, it was too little, too late.

With every play resulting in a point in rally scoring, a slow
start can spell disaster. For the first four games, the first team
to score 30 points wins the game. A fifth game, if necessary, is
only played to 15 points. Matches don’t become four-hour
marathons anymore.

Case in point: down 29-27 in the fourth game, Hawai’i
served the ball, UCLA’s Rich Nelson set it, and senior
outside hitter Mark Williams spiked it for a kill. Point, game and
match went to the Bruins along with the MPSF Championship and a
trip to the Final Four.

That’s rally scoring for you. No need for the sideout in
this brand of volleyball. It’s short and sweet.

“I never thought about it like that,” Williams said.
“I guess I’m used to the new format now.”

With shorter games, the comebacks are harder to come by while
upsets occur regularly. Though rally scoring helped the Bruins
against Hawai’i, you might think it’s a change that the
18-time national champions would oppose.

Think again.

“I’m in favor of the new format because I think the
fans like it,” Scates said. “I think it’s a more
exciting game. I know from a coaching standpoint it is.”

It’s because of rally scoring that Scates has a few more
gray hairs. The Bruins suffered two stunning upset losses to
Stanford this year and even dropped a game to Division II UC San
Diego.

In the MPSF Tournament, UCLA had to escape with two five-game
wins in the playoffs just to get to the Final Four. In fact,
Stanford had three match points to end UCLA’s season.

It all makes for more exciting volleyball. With teams only
averaging between five and seven true points in the fifth game,
anything can happen.

“Rally scoring to 15 is a crapshoot,” Assistant
Coach John Speraw said.

“I say you might as well flip a coin,” Scates
added.

That comes out about right. The Bruins are 5-5 this year in
matches that have gone to five games. It’s a good thing for
them that two of those wins came when it counted in the
playoffs.

Think of it like cutting the fourth quarter of a close
basketball game in half. Is the integrity of the sport being
compromised?

“The game is still the game. It’s clearly more
exciting,” Speraw said. “As a purist, I think
you’d want your sport to grow. This is something that helps
the sport grow. The fans really enjoy it.”

After playing nearly a season of volleyball with the new rules,
the Bruins now head into the NCAA Tournament a little more wary of
their lower-ranked opponents. It’s anyone’s game.

“There’s more of a chance of a Cinderella
story,” Speraw said. “If you let your guard down,
somebody could sneak up and catch you.”

Love or hate it, rally scoring is here to stay. The sideout will
soon be nothing more than a distant memory.

“I already forgot what it’s like to play with the
old scoring,” Williams said.

What they won’t forget is the exciting unpredictability of
rally scoring matches.