Home crowd helps Bruins pull out win

  MARY HOLSCHER Junior outside hitter Cameron
Mount spikes the ball in UCLA’s thrilling five game
victory over Pepperdine Thursday night. UCLA d. Pepperdine
30-28, 30-28, 28-30, 25-30,17-15

By Daniel Miller
Daily Bruin Contributor

It is a bit clichéd to say that the fans were the
proverbial sixth man that put the Bruins over the top.

However, rabid Bruin fans clearly gave the men’s
volleyball team a home court advantage as it beat Pepperdine 3-2 in
Pauley Pavilion for its eighth straight win.

The top-ranked Bruins (10-1, 5-0 MPSF) took each of the first
two games 30-28 before the No. 2 Waves (10-3, 5-1) stormed back to
win the third and fourth games 30-28 and 30-25. Crucial kills from
junior outside hitter Cameron Mount late in the fifth game led the
Bruins to a 17-15 victory.

“We did not think that they would roll over after the
second game,” Mount, who finished with a team-leading 21
kills, said. “They are such a balanced team.”

The contingency of UCLA students in the stands was quite vocal,
and utilized rather uncouth heckling to rattle the Waves’
servers.

Their efforts are seen in the box score, as the Waves committed
24 service errors to counter nine service aces.

“You can’t come into to someone else’s gym and
blow them out with your serve,” UCLA head coach Al Scates
said.

Several veteran team members contributed heavily offensively for
UCLA, which had a team hitting percentage of .329. Four Bruins
finished with double-digit kill totals ““ Mount, senior
outside hitter Matt Komer (18), junior quick hitter Scott Morrow
(15), and sophomore quick hitter Chris Peña (14).

The Bruins played a balanced match, and did so without freshman
outsider hitter Jonathan Acosta, who will be sidelined for at least
two weeks with a torn stomach muscle. In place of Acosta, who leads
the team in kills, Scates used sophomore Parker Smith and freshmen
David Russell and Brennan Prahler.

“All three of them can play better, but they all brought
different things to the court and got the job done,” Scates
said.

Statistically, Smith led the group with five kills and two block
assists.

Sophomore libero Adam Shrader had a career-high 21 digs and
junior setter Rich Nelson made 66 assists. Peña and Morrow led
the team with four block assists each.

After three close back-and-forth games, the fourth game’s
numerous long rallies gave it a very different dynamic.

“I think that by the fourth game we were more accustomed
to each other’s tendencies on the court, and that resulted in
better defense,” Mount said.

Pepperdine head coach Marv Dunphy volunteered his opinion that
Mount played very well, and blamed a slow start for the
Waves’ loss.

“Our slow start could have been because of UCLA ““ I
give credit where it is due,” he said.

While Dunphy is correct to credit UCLA’s play, he failed
to mention another group of Bruins that was bothersome to
Pepperdine.

The fans.