M. volleyball: Volleyball squad sweeps Northridge
By Erin Wagner
Feb. 2, 2005 9:00 p.m.
Packed into a small gym and having to listen to screaming
hecklers, the members of the UCLA men’s volleyball team chose
to ignore it all Wednesday night in Northridge.
Instead of becoming fazed in the intense atmosphere of the
Matadome, the Bruins maintained their concentration and played off
the known weaknesses of their opponent.
Using this strategy the Bruins completely and thoroughly
dominated California State University, Northridge.
With their sweep (30-18, 30-26, 30-26) of the Matadors, the
Bruins improved their conference record to 5-1 and maintained their
position atop the national rankings.
Coming off two consecutive matches against rival BYU, Wednesday
night’s game against No. 8 Cal State Northridge (4-6, 2-5
MPSF) could have easily seen a letdown from the Bruins.
But not only did UCLA’s focus never waver in each of the
three games, the Bruins made quick work of a lesser opponent, much
to their coach’s satisfaction.
“The team is playing just how I want them to,” UCLA
coach Al Scates said.
With a combined hitting average of .407 and recording 9.5
blocks, the Bruins proved superior to the Matadors in all aspects
of Wednesday’s match.
“Going into the match, their blocking stats were higher
than ours,” Scates said. “But we did a great job
tonight out-blocking them.”
“I think we won this game at the net tonight,” said
sophomore opposite hitter Steve Klosterman, who recorded nine kills
on the night.
Not only did the Bruins receive a boost from their blocking
game, but they’ve been welcomed with two straight impressive
starts from junior Dennis Gonzalez at the setter position.
Having replaced redshirt freshman Gaby Acevedo this past weekend
at BYU, Gonzalez recorded 35 assists without committing a single
error against the Matadors.
As a result of his recent performances, it appears as though
he’ll have many more opportunities to build up his
confidence.
“The BYU match was a good thing for me,” Gonzalez
said. “Just getting playing time builds up my
confidence.”
