Squad flying high after victory

UCLA d. Lewis 70 30-25, 23-3, 30-24, 30-24

By Diamond Leung
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

UCLA men’s volleyball coach Al Scates admitted earlier in
the week that he didn’t know much about Lewis University.
Coming into Thursday night’s match, all he had in his hands
to scout the Flyers with was their team roster. He was a bit
worried.

After the No. 2 Bruins defeated the No. 11 Flyers in the opening
match of the Outrigger Hotels Invitational at Hawaii, however,
Scates realized that he didn’t really have much to worry
about after all.

UCLA (3-1) easily handled the Lewis attack, holding the Flyers
to a .209 hitting percentage and blocking them 18.5 times. Flyer
sophomore All-American opposite hitter Fabiano Barreto only had
five kills on 20 swings. He finished with an overall -.150 hitting
percentage.

In the midst of UCLA’s 30-25, 23-30, 30-24, 30-24 win,
Scates actually found out quite a bit about his own squad.

After outside hitter Jonathan Acosta smashed a match-high 18
kills ““ one short of his career high ““ it appears that
the redshirt freshman is more than ready to step in as a solid
starter for the Bruins this year. He also had five block assists on
the night.

“Jonathan Acosta was fantastic,” Scates said.

Scates also found out that he has good depth at the middle
blocker position. Freshman Paul Johnson, who came into the match
for a struggling Scott Morrow, finished with six kills and eight
block assists. Scates was a bit surprised when told of
Johnson’s numbers.

“Wow, he had eight blocks?” he asked.

But it’s not as if the Bruins didn’t struggle a bit
themselves on offense. They only hit .250 and allowed the Flyers to
out-dig them.

“Our hitting wasn’t very sharp, but as soon as we
started to challenge their block, we hit well,” Scates
said.

Junior opposite hitter Cameron Mount had 14 kills for the
Bruins, including the match-winner. Sophomore middle blocker Chris
Peña served a career-high four aces.

Freshman outside hitter Gustavo Meyer led Lewis (0-1) with 15
kills. Sophomore middle blocker James Elsea added 13.

UCLA returns to the Stan Sheriff Center tonight to face
top-ranked Penn State. The Nittany Lions return all of their
starters from last year’s team, which reached the Final
Four.

“It should be a good match,” Scates said.