Cal Baptist Lancers fall to Bruins in five games
By Allister Wenzel
April 4, 2007 10:10 p.m.
After winning 10 straight matches at home and with the regular season winding down, UCLA men’s volleyball was determined not to let Cal Baptist get the best of them.
Thanks to 15 kills from both redshirt senior Paul George and redshirt freshman Brett Perrine, fourth-ranked UCLA was able to defeat a very talented Cal Baptist team in five thrilling games, 30-23, 22-30, 30-25, 20-30 and 15-11.
Coming into this game, the Bruins knew they had a tough challenge in front of them. Coming from the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, the Lancers are the top-ranked team in their league this year and won the league last year. Facing NCAA teams this season, the Lancers swept fifth-ranked UCSB and third-ranked BYU, two teams the Bruins were not able to defeat this season. There was definitely reason to worry.
“We knew they were going to be really good,” Perrine said. “They have a bunch of good players. … It’s a different type of team. We’re used to a lot of teams in our league and it’s good to get out of our own league and play different teams.”
Additionally, as an NAIA team, the Lancers are subject to rules that NCAA teams aren’t privileged to. These rules, according to coach Al Scates, allow Cal Baptist to recruit big-name players all around the world.
“They had seven foreign students and are quite a bit older than our guys,” Scates said. “These guys are mature athletes at the peak of their careers. … (NAIA teams) have twice as many scholarships as NCAA sports. They can go to Switzerland, to France, to Ghana, wherever they want and give a guy a full ride. … That team is a very talented team.”
The statistics confirm Scates’ statements. As a team, CBU hit 0.390 (higher than UCLA on the night), had two players with over 20 kills, and a 6-foot-11-inch behemoth blocker in German player Urs Gunthor who provided a blocking menace for the Bruins.
“They have great blocking,” George said. “They fill their block; it’s huge. I went up a couple times. … I was up and I see this man with huge hands and his whole body above the net and I’m thinking, “˜Man this guy’s enormous.'”
But despite the talent on the floor for the Lancers, by the conclusion of the match, the Bruins were simply too much. Although the Lancers blew the Bruins out in games 2 and 4 which launched their offensive statistics, the Bruins were able to win in games 1, 3 and, most importantly, 5 to close it out when it counted.
“The two blowout games … I gave (the Lancers) some different matchups,” Scates said. “I gave them some different players to look at and I rested some players, and they came back and they were good.”
Hot-hitting senior Steve Klosterman hit less than his usual best with 10 kills, but came in during the last game and delivered when it counted.
“Klosterman couldn’t put a ball away all night until I brought him in the fifth game, then he played really well,” Scates said. “They had two big guys on him all night. … Steve is used to hitting the ball over people, but you can’t hit it over a 7-footer.”
Next for the Bruins is UC Irvine on Friday night at home, where the Bruins hope to use the momentum from Wednesday’s match to defeat the second-ranked Anteaters.
“We were not ready the last time we played them,” Perrine said. “We need to jump all over them. We’re not going to lose in our home.”
