Tuesday, March 3, 1998
Undefeated Bruins will face pressure cooker
VOLLEYBALL UCLA to take on professional-level offense in match
vs. Loyola Ramblers
By Grace Wen
Daily Bruin Staff
The top-ranked UCLA men’s volleyball team will try to maintain
its unblemished record tonight.
The Bruins will take on
Loyola University of Chicago in a non-conference match in Pauley
Pavilion. UCLA will play its eighth match of a 10-match
homestand.
The Ramblers (13-2), on the other hand, will be playing its
second match of a week long stay in Los Angeles.
Loyola is off to arguably its best start ever having defeated
East Coast powers Penn State, Rutgers, George Mason and Lewis. The
Ramblers lead the west division in the Midwest Intercollegiate
Volleyball Association with an undefeated record.
The ninth-ranked Ramblers have adopted a "pressure cooker"
offense that has made them the No. 1 hitting team in the country
with a .387 attack percentage. The offense runs six plays for five
hitters in every rotation.
"The pressure cooker is a pro-level offense," Loyola head coach
Gordon Mayforth said. "It’s quicker and more complicated than any
other offense you’ll see in college volleyball – and it’s our way
to a championship. But like a pressure cooker, if everything
doesn’t go right, it can explode in your face."
Outside hitter Dan Schultz averages 5.57 kills a game and will
be the focus of UCLA’s defense. Schultz, the fifth-ranked digger in
the nation, will also be a factor on defense.
UCLA head coach Al Scates admits that little is known about
Loyola, a team that UCLA has never played.
"If this team beat Lewis, they’ve got to be pretty good because
Lewis took a game off us," Scates said. "So we just have to size
them up as we go and kind of scout them as we go and try to take
away whatever they want to do."
Although Loyola has one player that averages half an ace a game,
UCLA has three players that do the same. Setter Brandon Taliaferro
averages .57 aces a game while Adam Naeve and Ben Moselle average
.5 aces a game.
Scates has said that the serving advantage should be given to
UCLA. The Bruins are outserving their opponents 2.3 to .7. In
addition, the flexibility in the lineup makes it difficult for
opponents to plan its own strategy since one ever knows which
lineup will be on the court.
GENEVIEVE LIANG/Daily Bruin
Tom Stillwell spikes the ball through the arms of USC blockers
in a game earlier this year.