Third-Ranked UCLA Meets No.2 Long Beach State in MPSF Semifinals
April 28, 2004
The No.3-ranked UCLA men's volleyball team meets No.2 Long Beach State in the semifinals of the MPSF Tournament, Thurs., Apr. 29 at 9 p.m. (MDT) at BYU's Smith Fieldhouse.
The match will be broadcast live on broadcastmonsters.com and mpsports.com with Al Epstein serving as the play-by-play announcer.
The Bruins (24-5) defeated No.6 Hawaii 3-0 on Saturday night to advance. The second-seeded 49ers (26-5) swept UCSB on Saturday to earn their trip to Utah.
In the upper half of the bracket, top-seeded BYU (25-4) defeated eighth-seeded UC Irvine 3-0 and Pepperdine (19-8) swept visiting Cal State Northridge.
BYU hosts Pepperdine in the other semifinal on Thursday at 7 p.m.
Thursday's winners meet at 7 p.m. in Saturday's championship match. The championship match will be televised live on CSTV.
The MPSF champion earns an automatic berth into the NCAA Championships, May 6 & 8 in Hawaii.
UCLA is looking to win its 25th conference title and first since 2001 when it won the crown at BYU. Overall, the Bruins are 17-5 in the MPSF Tournament.
Last Saturday, the Bruins held the Warriors to a hitting percentage of .185 and produced 50 total kills to their opponent's 39.
Senior Chris Pe?a and freshman Steve Klosterman led the Bruins with 11 kills apiece. Pe?a also added two total blocks and 12.5 points.
The victory ended UCLA's two-match Pauley Pavilion losing streak to Hawaii.
The Bruins are 0-2 against the 49ers this season, suffering sweeps in both conference matches. In the first match on Feb. 11, the Bruins were beaten at the net 12-7 in blocking, served just one ace and committed 14 service errors. Freshman Steve Klosterman led the Bruins with 18 kills and senior Chris Pe?a added 10 (.529). Jeff Wootten and Scott Touzinsky combined for 27 kills as The Beach hit .394 for the match.
In the second match, junior Jonathan Acosta led UCLA with just 10 kills, and the Bruins were out-blocked again, 11.5-5.0. The Beach held UCLA to a hitting percentage of .183 and served four aces to the Bruins' three.