M. volleyball: One win away from a championship

After four years on the bench, UCLA walk-on Brennan Prahler was
given the best opportunity any volleyball player could ask for
Thursday:

The chance to start in the NCAA Final Four on his own home
court.

Prahler made the most of his opportunity, recording a match-high
17 kills to lead the third-seeded Bruins to a 3-0 sweep over No. 2
seed Penn State 30-20, 30-24, 30-27. With the victory, UCLA
advanced to the NCAA Championship on Saturday night where it will
take on top-seed Pepperdine.

“Brennan and the seniors carried us tonight,” UCLA
coach Al Scates said. “They worked hard all season for this
opportunity and it showed.”

Prahler, however, almost did not have that opportunity.

Up until about 3 p.m. Thursday afternoon, Scates had decided to
start sophomore Steve Klosterman at the opposite hitter
position.

After talking to soft-spoken All-American Paul Johnson, however,
Scates decided to have a change of heart.

“Paul doesn’t speak up much, but when he told me to
go with Brennan, I decided to listen to him,” Scates said.
“It’s a good thing I did.”

Prahler and the seniors led the Bruins to their first NCAA Final
Four victory since 2001, but are not satisfied with simply
advancing to the championship match.

“Tonight was a great victory for us,” senior
Jonathan Acosta said. “But we will not reach our ultimate
goal until we win on Saturday.”

Coming into the match, Penn State was known for its superior
blocking and play at the net. To combat that, the Bruins used
Prahler, who caught Penn State’s defense off guard.

“Our game plan going into the match was to go to the
opposite hitter,” Prahler said. “We knew they converged
on the middle and we could exploit that.”

Now, the only roadblock standing in front of the Bruins and
their 19th NCAA title is Pepperdine.

It’s a situation the Bruins did not necessarily expect to
be in after falling in the quarterfinals of the MPSF Tournament to
Cal State Northridge.

“After the loss against Northridge, the mood on the team
was kind of rocky,” Prahler said. “But after being
selected, it has almost been like a new season, a second
chance.”

With their new opportunity, the Bruins now have a chance to
silence the critics who said UCLA did not deserve to get into the
tournament. Advancing to the finals also gives the Bruins a chance
to put an end to their postseason futility of five years since
their last title.

“People were saying that we weren’t going to get
in,” Acosta said. “But based on the criteria, we were
the right team and we proved that a little tonight.”

UCLA had eight service aces to Penn State’s three, and
caused the Nittany Lions to commit eight receiving errors, which
eventually led to their doom.

“If they were able to receive our serves, they probably
would have beaten us tonight,” Scates said. “In fact,
they would have beaten any team in the country.”

Much of the Bruins’ success Saturday will fall on
Prahler.

After spending four seasons in relative anonymity behind the
blue curtain, Prahler has burst onto the team since midway through
this season. He was the Bruins’ hottest hitter for a stretch
of games, including a 15-kill and a .407-hitting percentage
performance in the Bruins’ closely contested 3-2 loss to No.
1 Pepperdine back on March 12 in Malibu.

Now for the Bruins and their seniors to accomplish an
unprecedented 19th NCAA title, Prahler will need a similar
performance Saturday against the Waves.