UCLA
Loyola Marymnt
Bruins Outlast Lions in Tight Four-Game Match
April 28, 2000 | Men's Volleyball
April 28, 2000
UCLA's fourth-ranked men's volleyball team outlasted upstart Loyola Marymount, 3-1, Thursday night in the semifinals of the MPSF Tournament at Pepperdine.
The Bruins avenged an April 5 home loss to the Lions by beating them 15-8, 15-11, 13-15, 15-12 in two-hours and 35 minutes before 1,432 spectators .
UCLA (26-5) advances to Saturday's league championship match against Pepperdine (22-4), a 3-1 winner over USC. The MPSF Tournament winner receives an automatic berth into the NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship, May 7-9 in Ft. Wayne, IN.
Loyola Marymount finished its season with a 12-12 record.
In Game 1, UCLA raced to a 13-4 lead before LMU settled into its sideout mode and whittled away at the lead. Senior Corin Bemus served the first of his four aces to cut the UCLA lead to 13-5. After six sideouts, the Lions scored three points on a Bemus block, an attack error by UCLA's Mark Williams and a kill by senior Reid Priddy. After nine more sideouts, the Bruins took the game on a pair of LMU hitting errors.
Game 2 mirrored the first as the Bruins took a 9-0 lead on a variety of LMU errors, a block and an ace by senior Seth Burnham, and kills from senior Evan Thatcher and sophomore Matt Komer. The Lions roared back to close the gap to 12-10 on a kill by senior Jason Lee, an ace by Bemus and a kill by Priddy. Two kills by Evan Thatcher gave the Bruins a 13-10 cushion and a kill by Komer and a block by Komer and freshman Scott Morrow gave the Bruins a 2-0 lead.
The Bruins squandered an 11-5 lead in Game 3 when they committed several unforced errors. Five straight UCLA attack errors sandwiched around a timeout gave the Lions new hope at 10-11. They tied it on a kill by Brian Wagner and went ahead 12-11 on Bemus' ace. They Bruins tied it on a block by senior Ed Ratledge and Burnham, then gave away a point off a blocking error. Bemus made it 14-13 with a kill, and a UCLA hitting error gave LMU the game.
LMU took a 7-3 lead in Game 4 before the Bruins bounced back. They got a kill out of the back row from senior libero Matt Davis and an ace from senior setter Brandon Taliaferro to close to 7-5. Following eight sideouts, two straight blocks on Jason Lee by Taliaferro and Morrow tied the score at 7-7. The Bruins then took a 9-7 lead on Williams' ace and Lee's hitting error. Another block by the Bruins gave them a 10-7 lead, and an ace by Taliaferro and a kill by sub Cameron Mount made it 12-7. The Lions got a point on a UCLA hitting error, but the Bruins got a point on a bad set. At 13-8 with Wagner serving, LMU blocked kill attempts from Williams and Ratledge and suddenly the score was 13-10. Ratledge slammed a kill to make it 14-10, but LMU countered with a kill from Bemus for 14-11. They got another point when Ratledge went long. Finally, with Morrow serving, Mount slammed a cross-court kill off Wagner and the Bruins took the game 15-12.
Mount and Ratledge, both fourth game substitutions, proved to be the difference in the final game for UCLA. Ratledge pounded 11 kills and Mount added seven in eight attempts. Komer was the Bruins kill leader with 15, followed Burnham with 14. Burnham and Morrow combined for 20 block assists (10 each), while Taliaferro and Komer each added six. Of UCLA's eight aces, Taliaferro and Williams combined for five of them.
Priddy led all players with 34 kills, although the Bruins managed to contain his percentage to .222. Bemus added 28 kills (.383).
