UCLA vs. UC Santa Barbara

[Mac]

Playoff March Begins at Home (for UCSB)
By Tiffany Polfer / Staff Writer
Published Friday, April 20, 2007

Aaron Wu / Daily Nexus

It’s deja vu all over again for the #5 UCSB men’s volleyball team, as the Gauchos will host #4 UCLA tomorrow night in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Quarterfinals. Last year, the Bruins defeated Santa Barbara in the MPSF play-in match, ending UCSB’s postseason run. The Bruins went on to win 14 straight games en route to the NCAA national championship.

Coming into tomorrow’s match, the Bruins (19-10 overall, 13-9 in the MPSF) have history on their side as they hold a 111-27 overall record against the Gauchos (14-8, 19-MPSF). This year, UCLA has defeated UCSB twice in three matches. Overall, the Bruins have a 24-6 record in the postseason since 1993, winning seven MPSF titles and six NCAA titles. With their recent sweep of UC San Diego, the Bruins have now won five straight matches, and 12 of their last 15.

“Their history speaks for itself,” Head Coach Ken Preston said. “They are a tough team with great talent. They will always have great talent, and a good coach. [Last year] they were the seventh seed, and they started to play well at the end of the season.”

Both teams boast a formidable offense. UCSB is led by senior opposite Evan Patak, who was voted onto the All-MPSF first team and leads the nation with an average of 5.98 kills per game and 1.02 aces per game.

“[Patak] is having a great year,” Preston said. “He has been healthy for the year. He has led the team in almost every offensive category. He means a lot to the team. We wouldn’t be where we are without him.”

UCLA is led by senior opposite Steve Klosterman, who was voted to the All-MPSF second team. Klosterman is seventh in the conference with 4.16 kills per game.

“[Klosterman] is a very good opposite,” Preston said. “He receives a lot of their sets and is a good blocker. He is right there with [Patak and Pepperdine sophomore outside hitter Paul Carroll]. Klosterman is good, a very good hitter.”

Junior middle blocker Theo Brunner, who was also voted onto the All-MPSF first team, leads the Gauchos with a .548 hitting percentage and a 1.06 blocks per game. Brunner’s .531 conference hitting percentage is second in the MPSF. Senior outside hitter Bryan Berman has also been a presence on the court for the Gauchos. Berman is fourth on the team with a 2.22 kills per game average and second on the team with 161 digs.

“[Brunner] is pretty quiet,” Preston said. “He is a great hitter and usually has two blocks in his face. He hits high off the hands. He is a really good offensive middle. [Berman] is as stable as a rock. He is one of the captains on the team. He is an intense guy, intense competitor and gives us stability.”

The winner of tomorrow’s match will move on to face top-seeded #1 Pepperdine (24-1, 21-1 MPSF) on April 26.


www.dailynexus.com/article.php?a=13840

[Mac]

Fourth-Ranked UCLA Travels to UCSB for MPSF Quarterfinals
Bruins look to win their second MPSF Tournament title.

April 18, 2007

The defending NCAA and MPSF Tournament champion UCLA men's volleyball team, winners of five straight and 12 of their last 15, travels to UC Santa Barbara for the quarterfinals of the 2007 MPSF playoffs on Sat., Apr. 21 at UCSB's Robertson Gym.

First serve is set for 7 p.m. with Darren Preston calling the play-by-play audio on uclabruins.com.

This season, the Bruins (19-10, 13-9) have won two of three matches against the Gauchos. UCLA defeated UCSB 3-0 in the second round of the UCSB Collegiate Classic on Jan. 5. The Gauchos returned the favor with a five-game victory on Jan. 17, and the Bruins avenged that loss with a four-game victory at Pauley Pavilion on Feb. 23.

In the MPSF playoffs, the Bruins own a 24-6 overall record since 1993. They have won seven conference tournament crowns and six NCAA titles in that span.

Against UCSB in the league playoffs over the last 14 years, the Bruins are 3-1, claiming victories in 2006 (play-in), 1997 (semifinals) and 1996 (championship). UCSB's lone playoff victory over UCLA came in the quarterfinals in 2002.

UCLA leads the overall series, 111-27 and last won at UCSB on Apr. 12, 2006. That win was their seventh straight on their 14-match march to the 2006 NCAA title.

UCSB presents a formidable challenge in senior All-American Evan Patak, the national leader in kills (5.75 kpg) and aces (0.98 apg). Patak also ranks second nationally in points (6.65 ppg). In three matches against the Gauchos, the Bruins have managed to hold Patak slightly below his averages: 5.17 kpg, 0.75 aces per game and 6.21 ppg. The 6-8 senior is hitting .371 for the season, but the Bruins have held him to a percentage of .201.

The Bruins completed the regular season with a 3-0 victory on the road against UC San Diego on Apr. 13. The victory was UCLA's 44th straight in the series against UCSD. Senior Steve Klosterman led the Bruins with 16 kills (.393), two aces and 18 points.

NOTES-- UCLA's five-game victory against UC Irvine on April 6 will be shown on Time-Warner Channel 36 Sat., Apr. 21 beginning at 7 p.m. Check the Ch. 36 listings for other broadcast times. The 90-minute telecast begins in Game 3.

...For ticket information to Saturday's match, please call 805.893.UCSB.

uclabruins.cstv.com/sports/m-volley/spec-rel/041807aaa.html

[swingaway]

MONSTERS IN THE MIDDLE
BLAKE DORFMAN, NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

April 21, 2007 6:29 AM

Theo Brunner is the Scottie Pippen of the UCSB men's volleyball team.

You know, the great player who goes under the radar due to a superstar teammate.

Evan Patak, the nation's leader in kills and aces, has been grabbing all the headlines this season and has deserved every one. He has been blasting volleyballs out of his cannon arm and making jaws drop all year.

But Brunner, a 6-foot-7 junior middle blocker, has quietly hit for a .548 average, good enough for second in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation and fourth in the country. His 111 blocks also leads the No. 5 Gauchos, who will host No. 4 UCLA tonight in the MPSF quarterfinals at Rob Gym at 7 p.m.

"We're all really excited to be hosting them because they ousted us last year," Brunner said. "We really want to beat them, and we're confident that we're the better team when we fire on all cylinders."

After beating the Gauchos in a play-in game last year, the Bruins went on to win the national championship.

For 29th-year Gaucho coach Ken Preston, the desire to beat the Bruins goes back well before Brunner was even born.

"I grew up here and graduated in 1970, so I'm from old school Gaucho-ville, and if there is anyone I would like to beat it's the Bruins," he said. "We've had the short end of the stick for a long time with them. They have the premier program and the premier coach."

That premier coach is Al Scates, who has led UCLA to 19 national titles in 45 years with the program.

The Bruins beat the Gauchos in the NCAA semifinals in 1970, then in the 1971 NCAA finals in front of 5,041 at Pauley Pavilion. In 1974, UCSB squandered a 7-1 lead in the fifth game of the title match as seldom-used Bruin freshman Sabin Perkins came in to serve six-straight points, giving UCLA the win at Rob Gym. The Bruins did it again in '75, defeating the unbeaten Gaucho squad in four games for the championship.

Preston was in the stands during the 1974 match, and still recalls it as a painful memory. He can, however, say that he is the only Gaucho coach to ever beat the Bruins in the postseason. That happened in 1988, when the Gauchos won at Pauley Pavilion and advanced to the final four, where they would eventually lose to USC in the title match.

In more recent history, UCLA has remained the thickest thorn in UCSB's side, but there was some relief earlier this year.

On Jan. 17, the Bruins took the first two games off of UCSB before the Gauchos stormed back for a 31-33, 27-30, 30-28, 30-27, 15-6 win at Rob Gym behind 31 Patak kills. That broke UCSB's 11-match losing streak to UCLA, which included a loss earlier in the year during the annual Elephant Bar Tournament.

The Gauchos feel that a national championship is a realistic goal this season, but they will have to win three consecutive MPSF Tournament matches against the likes of top-ranked Pepperdine and powerhouses like BYU and UC Irvine just to qualify for the four-team NCAA Tournament in Columbus, Ohio. Two wins there would give Preston his first national title.

While Patak's offense is the most obvious factor in the Gauchos' success, Brunner's productivity in the middle is also a must-have for UCSB.

Hailing from Connecticut, Brunner is the only player on the roster not from California. Needless to say, the level of high school volleyball played in Connecticut is not nearly what it is in Southern California.

So how on earth did Preston end up nabbing such a player out of relative volleyball obscurity? And how can this kid go from low-level high school volleyball to trying out for the national team in just three active college seasons?

"He sent us a tape and we knew we wanted him. He's 6-7 and can touch 11-7, so he's just a great athlete," said Preston.

Brunner, who plans on playing professionally either on the beach or in Europe after graduating, also has a knack for what Preston often refers to as "the fine art of hitting." It's not always about who can hit the ball the hardest, but who can see the block and hit around it. And when Brunner puts one down, there's never a big celebration.



"That's how I've always played sports. I just concentrate really hard on not making an error, and I'm not overly happy about the play because I expect myself to make it. I'm more looking forward to doing it again," he said.

Hopefully for his team, he'll be doing it again and again and again and again tonight.

e-mail: [e-mail]

[swingaway]

Volleyball confident entering MPSF playoffs
UCLA prepared to play UCSB in first round of postseason after facing off four times this year
Allison Ho (Contact)
Published: Friday, April 20, 2007
When it comes to the postseason, No. 4 UCLA and No. 5 UC Santa Barbara are anything but strangers. Saturday will mark the third time in six seasons that the two men’s volleyball rivals will butt heads in the opening round of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation playoffs, and the fifth total time they will meet this season. Last year, the Gauchos were the Bruins’ first postseason victim en route to their 19th NCAA volleyball title, and in 2002, UCSB knocked UCLA out in the quarterfinals.

So when the Bruins (19-10, 13-9 MPSF) take on UCSB (19-11, 14-8) Saturday night in Robertson Gymnasium, they will undoubtedly have the Gauchos’ tendencies engraved in their minds. UCSB has thrown everything but the kitchen sink at the Bruins throughout the years, emptying the bench and rotating in all of its available personnel.

“We’re prepared for any combination of their four outside hitters (two setters and two liberos), and we expect to see them all,” UCLA coach Al Scates said. “We’ve actually seen everybody who is going to play.”

The Bruins own the bragging rights to the season series 3-1, yet the one loss came in the same arena in which the two will meet Saturday. UCSB currently holds a home record of 7-4, while the Bruins have performed poorly on the road, accumulating a 4-7 record away from home.

“We’re not a great road team, but Santa Barbara isn’t a great home team as far as records go,” Scates said. “But our last road match was at ’SC and we played great over there, so I think we’re over that problem.”

Whereas UCLA held the advantage when it hosted the play-in match last year, the Gauchos now have the slight upper-hand because of the home crowd.

“(The fans) love to beat UCLA because we’re the big mama bear and they’re the tiny little Gauchos,” outside hitter Paul George said. “They get fired up, it’s loud; it’s a small arena. They can pack the place with 500, whereas 500 in Pauley is like you can hear the crickets in the corner.”

Throughout the series matchups, even in the loss in January, the key to keeping the Gauchos at bay has been to contain the conference kill leader Evan Patak. The senior opposite averages 5.98 kills per game, but UCLA has managed to stifle the Gaucho big gun. In January, the Bruins held him to a .200 clip, despite him slamming 31 kills, and in the February win, UCLA shut him down to a .111 hitting percentage.

“They set him a ton of balls, so if youshut him down they gotta go to other people,” setter Kevin Ker said of Patak, who also leads the conference with 1.02 aces per game and 7.4 points per game.

“He’s a phenomenal player,” George said. “We gotta make sure when he goes back to the service line he doesn’t rattle off three or four points. He’s got something like 83 aces on the season. That’s ridiculous. I think I have 30 and I’m leading this team. I mean, it’s unbelievable.”

So while the statistics glorify UCSB as a team and Patak as its star, UCLA is fairly confident that it will emerge triumphant over the conference’s No. 1 team in hitting percentage, kills, aces and assists, as it has done three times before.

“(Those statistics are) against the rest of the country, and we’ve done a little better than that against Santa Barbara,” Scates said. “We’ve managed to hold those numbers down and score pretty well against them.”

POSTSEASON HONORS: As the playoffs are underway, postseason honors have also begun. Three Bruins were awarded conference honors, released in an announcement Thursday. Junior libero Tony Ker made the All-MPSF First Team, while senior opposite Steve Klosterman was selected to the Second Team. Fellow senior outside hitter George made it onto the Third Team.

No. 1 Pepperdine stole most of the honors, as setter Jonathan Winder was named MPSF Player of the Year and Waves coach Marv Dunphy was named MPSF Coach of the Year. Yamil Perez, a setter for BYU, was named the league’s Newcomer of the Year.

[CSUNner]

UCSB Game 1 Over UCLA 30-17

[CSUNner]

UCLA on a tear in game two, 7-4

[CSUNner]

UCSB coming back hard now 7-6 UCLA

[Spam I Am]

anymore updates?

[Rocky]

32-32 game two

[Rocky]

34-34

[Rocky]

Patak and Klosterman are both getting a lot of swings and a lot of kills with those swings.
37-35 game two to UCSB
UCSB up 2-0

[Rocky]

Some stats given -
UCSB hitting .414
UCLA hitting .117 (they said first game was .000)

Patak hitting .393
Klosterman hitting .176

Aces to errors -
UCSB 3-6
UCLA 5-15

Blocking -
UCSB - 8.5
UCLA - 2

Game three starting . . .

[Rocky]

UCSB up 3-2 in game 3

[Rocky]

7-4 UCLA

[Rocky]

UCSB catching up
UCLA up 9-8