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Gaucho spikers
hope to ruin Bruins : Shoe drive will be held at tonight's match
BLAKE DORFMAN, NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
February 20, 2008
8:13 AM
College
volleyball's version of the "evil empire" storms its way into
town tonight as the UCLA Bruins will look to exact some revenge on the UCSB
men in a 7 p.m. matchup at Rob Gym.
The Bruins have
won 19 NCAA titles, two more than all other programs combined. Their coach,
Al Scates, has a record of 1,154-223 over 45
years with the team.
He's going for 50
years and 20 titles.
Legendary L.A.
Times sports columnist Jim Murray once said Scates
was to volleyball what Napoleon was to artillery.
"I've been
trying to figure out Al Scates for the past 30
years," says UCSB coach Ken Preston.
But even Napoleon
lost a battle here and there (see Trafalgar), and the Bruins were conquered
the last time they paid the No. 14 Gauchos (6-7,4-5
Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) a visit.
Last April, UCSB
tallied a 30-17, 37-35, 27-30, 30-27 win over the
Bruins in front of 1,157 fans -- a hefty crowd for Rob Gym.
This year, No. 6
UCLA (10-5, 7-4 MPSF) has had a strong start with a few big letdowns.
It won at No. 5
Pepperdine and took down defending national champion and seventh-ranked UC
Irvine, but recently took a bad loss at No. 10 Hawaii, a team the Gauchos
beat twice at the beginning of the month, albeit at home.
UCLA has also
dropped both of its matches against crosstown
rival USC.
Preston, however, knows
that beating the team that has a 111-28 series lead over UCSB will be no
easy feat.
"They're a
very good club, and they don't make many errors," said Preston. "If you make too many errors at UCLA
you get sent behind the blue curtain and somebody takes your place. They're
five players deep at every position and we're two players deep."
The Bruins have
only one senior, libero Tony Ker, who has been out with injury but is
probable for tonight. UCSB is also young, and there will be some important
matchups that will decide the outcome.
UCSB middle
blocker Theo Brunner has been in a zone as of late and garnered MPSF Player
of the Week for the first two weeks in February. He will be going up
against Bruins junior Jamie Diefenbach, who is
hitting for an impressive .456 average so far.
The Bruins are
also still looking for a primary opposite hitter, and Gaucho freshman Jeff
Menzel has grown more consistent at that spot for UCSB this year.
Mike Runkle and Phil Mathews will start on the left side for
UCSB, while the Bruins have talented sophomore Garrett Muagututia,
who leads the team with a 3.89 kills-per-game average.
Santa Barbara
High alumnus Jeremy Casebeer is a freshman for
the Bruins and has seen action in four games on the left side so far.
Those in
attendance are encouraged to bring a pair of "gently used" or
better shoes to donate to UCSB's efforts to
benefit Soles4Souls, a non-profit which distributes shoes to those in need
across the globe.
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