Men’s volleyball breathes easy in five-game win over Irvine
By Allison Ho
March 9, 2008 9:15 p.m.
Perhaps all they needed was a little rest and relaxation.
In a dogfight on the road with UC Irvine on Friday night, coach Al Scates and the members of the No. 10-ranked men’s volleyball team managed to outwit, outplay and outlast the Anteaters in what felt like a five-set match of “Survivor.” UCLA defeated UC Irvine 25-30, 30-27, 30-28, 19-30 and 15-10 to improve to 13-9 overall and 8-6 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play.
What spurred the Bruins on to victory was a little mental tactic that Scates occasionally employs in times of desperation: benching his starters to give them a physical and mental breather.
“It gives them time to look at what the opponents are doing; it’s something I’ve done (all) my career,” Scates said. “Mentally it helps them get their mind reset. They were pumped and ready to play in the fifth game.”
When all had seemed to be going wrong in game four, in which UCLA hit an all-time low of a 0.083 hitting percentage, Scates identified the downhill spiral and made the yanks early.
One by one, out went Jamie Diefenbach, D.J. Stromath and Ryan Ratelle, and in came Brett Perrine, Weston Dunlap and Jeff Woodley.
“In the fourth game we rested (them) because that game got out of hand rather quickly,” Scates said. “So I gave them a nice, long rest. They were rested.”
And the starters were, it’s safe to say, more rested and relaxed come game five. Outside hitters Garrett Muagututia and Sean O’Malley both finished off the night with 20 kills apiece.
The team also benefited from some extra respite from the prior day’s practice. Coming off a grueling early week schedule (the Bruins played Lewis and UC Santa Cruz on Tuesday and Wednesday), coach Scates gave certain members of the team an early leave in accordance with their playing time the night before.
First relieved of practice duties were Muagututia and O’Malley, who, aside from leading the team in kills that week, participated in the entire two matches. The middles filed out soon after, and the two setters, Matt Wade and Kevin Ker, who had split time against Lewis and Santa Cruz, were among the last starters to leave the gym.
Thursday’s was most definitely a different kind of practice for the Bruins, who normally go hard for two or more hours in the Student Activities Center gym.
“We let different players go at different times,” Scates said. “We kept the backup players for a couple of hours. (But the starters) had fresh legs for (the UC Irvine match Friday).”
The move clearly paid off for the Bruins.
In addition to the game four rest for three of the starters, the shorter Thursday practice seemed to have given the Bruins that extra lift that was needed in that fifth and decisive set Friday.
With the win, UCLA clinches an important league victory that will further solidify a spot in the MPSF play-offs and will aid in its quest for hosting a first-round match come April.
