UCLA Battles Long Beach State Saturday in MPSF Championship Match
April 28, 2006
The fifth-ranked UCLA men's volleyball team battles No. 2 Long Beach State Saturday, Apr. 29 at UC Irvine for the right to advance to the NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship next week at State College, PA.
First serve for Saturday's match is set for 7 p.m. at UCI's Bren Center. College Sports Television (CSTV) will televise the match live. The MPSF will generate a live radio broadcast of the match, which can be accessed at www.uclabruins.com.
The Bruins (23-12) defeated No.3 Pepperdine 3-0 in Thursday's first MPSF semifinal, while The Beach (23-9) upset top-ranked UC Irvine 3-0 in the second semifinal.
Long Beach State has defeated UCLA twice in three matches this season, but lost 3-0 at UCLA on Mar. 31. The victory was UCLA's third straight at the time. The Bruins' winning streak has grown to 11 matches entering Saturday's showdown.
Despite suffering two league losses to Pepperdine earlier this season, UCLA out-played the Waves in every aspect of the match. The Bruins hit .379 to the Waves' .312, out-served them seven to one and out-blocked them 12.5-8.0.
In addition, four UCLA players recorded double-digit kill totals, led by junior Paul George, who slammed 16 kills (.464).
Although Pepperdine's John Parfitt led all players with 21 kills, UCLA held him to an attack percentage of .293,
For the Bruins, playoff motivation has been a key element of their stretch drive. On March 17, they were down 0-2 at home to USC before rallying for a 3-2 victory. That victory raised their overall record to 13-12. They won seven more matches to finish seventh in the league race and clinch a home court date for the first round of the playoffs. In the playoffs they defeated UCSB 3-1 (Apr. 19), Hawai'i 3-1 on the road (Apr. 22) and Pepperdine on Thursday.
"We've been counted out," senior setter Dennis Gonzalez said to the L.A. Times. "Now you've got to count us in."
For ticket information call the UC Irvine ticket office at 949-824-5000.