Cougars sink claws into Bruins for double win

The heckling fans didn’t beat the Bruins.

The altitude of Provo, Utah didn’t defeat UCLA either.

BYU beat the UCLA men’s volleyball team ““ twice
““ thoroughly outplaying the Bruins in two 3-0 victories
Friday and Saturday night at the Smith Fieldhouse.

“(The altitude and the fans) are certainly not the reasons
we lost,” UCLA head coach Al Scates said. “They out-hit
us, out-served us, out-blocked, and out-passed us. They are healthy
and strong and very good. Even if we had played at UCLA, BYU would
have beaten us.”

At least the Bruins didn’t beat themselves.

The No. 3 Cougars (5-1, 5-1 MPSF) defeated No. 7 UCLA (4-5, 1-4
Pac-10) 30-27, 30-21, 30-26 Friday night in front of 4,980 frenetic
fans, and 34-32, 30-26, 30-15 in front of 3,499 on Saturday.

Due to Utah’s high elevation, serves fly three feet
farther at BYU ““ a fact that disrupted the Bruins’
serving game. In Friday’s match UCLA served conservatively,
but the cautious service game played right into BYU’s
superior passing game. On Saturday, UCLA served more aggressively,
but made 22 service errors, while BYU had only 13.

Then there are the BYU fans, who make serving at the Smith
Fieldhouse an interesting proposition.

“When you go back to serve they are yelling in your ear,
and they are at eye-level with seats right on the court,”
senior setter Rich Nelson said. “I think we did a great job
of not letting it get to us.”

The Cougars out-blocked the Bruins 10-5 Friday, while UCLA made
24 attack errors, compared to BYU’s 11.

“The UCLA tradition is what a lot of people seem to be
sitting on,” junior quick hitter Chris Peña said.
“The guys that are healthy and playing a lot, that’s
our team. It sounds simple and obvious, but the guys that are
injured aren’t going to be coming back soon, so we have to
work harder, and we can’t wait for someone to save the day.
Teams are not going to roll over for us.”

Peña made reference to senior quick hitter Scott Morrow
(the team’s best blocker, according to Scates) and junior
quick hitter Matt Shubin (the team’s “next best
blocker”). Morrow is recovering from knee surgery, and Shubin
has the flu.

Scates said Morrow “will be back in the future,” and
expects Shubin to play this Wednesday against Cal State
Northridge.

On Saturday, BYU out-blocked the Bruins 12-4.5 as Peña led
UCLA with 11 kills and hit .556.

“This is probably the low point of the season,”
Scates said.

At least they’re not making any excuses.