Wins prove West is best in men’s volleyball

This was a victory for tradition.

It was a win that came straight from the sands of Honolulu, the
Malibu coastline and the cramped high school gyms of Orange
County.

It was a day of volleyball that spoke volumes about where the
power base is in collegiate volleyball.

UCLA 3, Penn State 0. Pepperdine 3, Ohio State 0. The West is
still best.

There were some that said the gap between the West Coast schools
and the rest of the nation had narrowed after Lewis and BYU used
foreign-born players to capture consecutive national championships
the past two years, and Penn State emerged as a national power this
season. That myth was debunked Thursday night.

First UCLA dispatched Penn State in one NCAA semifinal match
with a mixture of style and guile. Then Pepperdine overwhelmed Ohio
State in the other with its size and skill.

And with that, the notion of parity in men’s college
volleyball was put to rest for another year.

“Our competition out here in the West is a lot harder than
that cupcake league over there,” UCLA’s Brennan Prahler
said. “It’s a disadvantage to them because
they’re a great team, but their schedule is holding them
back.”

That the Waves blew through Ohio State was no surprise, but Penn
State wasn’t just another East Coast patsy. The second-ranked
Nittany Lions were seeded ahead of UCLA. They won 30 matches this
season, feature the nation’s best blocking attack, and are
making their seventh consecutive appearance in the Final Four.

But some of that success was a product of their competition.
Penn State’s three regular season losses were all against
MPSF competition including a resounding 3-0 sweep at Pauley
Pavilion in March that snapped the Nittany Lions’ 15-match
winning streak.

“Our strength of schedule is what tipped the balance in
our favor,” UCLA’s Gaby Acevedo said. “We had a
really tough schedule, and it prepared us well. It would have been
interesting to see what would have happened if Penn State had
played in the MPSF.”

The guess here: It would have helped a lot.

Penn State came into Thursday’s match having reeled off 14
consecutive wins, but not one of those was against a quality
opponent. Only one of its 30 victories came against a team from the
upper echelon of the MPSF.

Penn State actually made a West Coast trip in March, blowing
through UC San Diego and UC Irvine before running into UCLA. But a
three-game road swing doesn’t negate a season’s worth
of MPSF competition.

That much was obvious watching the Nittany Lions try to return
UCLA’s serve. The Bruins posted eight service aces and forced
eight return errors from the Nittany Lions.

“There is only so long you can use the serving
machine,” Penn State coach Mark Pavlik said. “If we saw
this type of serving year-round, it might have been a different
outcome.”

Midway through the first game, it was Penn State, the team with
a wealth of Final Four experience, who looked rattled, and UCLA who
looked more comfortable.

Prahler and fellow senior Jonathan Acosta came through with big
points. Acevedo, UCLA’s setter, deftly found the open
teammate. And legendary coach Al Scates calmly stalked the
sidelines, enjoying the fruits of his 25th consecutive NCAA
Tournament victory at Pauley Pavilion.

As the Pepperdine-Ohio State match was about to begin, Prahler
stood outside Pauley Pavilion, a smile on his face and a lei around
his neck.

“The West is still best,” he said.

E-mail Eisenberg at [email protected].