Match v. 49ers to gauge improvement

Daniel Miller
Published: Friday, February 28, 2003

It’s time to hit the stride.

Riding a five-match winning streak, the once injury-plagued No. 7 UCLA men’s volleyball team (10-7, 7-6 MPSF) has shaken off its limp and finally picked up the pace.

“Because teams are thinking that UCLA isn’t going to do well, teams aren’t looking at us,” senior setter Rich Nelson said. “They should be.”

The Bruins travel to Long Beach State tonight to take on the No. 8 49ers (10-7, 6-6) squad that handed the Bruins a 3-2 loss at Pauley Pavilion Jan. 23.

UCLA remembers that loss well.

“Now we can play someone who has beaten us and gauge our progress,” head coach Al Scates said. “They have improved and so have we, so we’ll see who has improved more.”

The Bruins will face a new 49er in freshman outside hitter Robert Tarr, who had planned on redshirting the season, but is now seeing significant playing time. In the 49ers 3-0 defeat of UC San Diego Wednesday, Tarr has 12 kills, six digs and hit .444.

“We couldn’t stop them last time we played them,” Scates said. “They are a really good jump serving team – they put the ball where they want it, and hard. We are going to have to do a better job of scoring.”

UCLA travels to UCSD Saturday to play the 3-13 Tritons, who are 0-12 in MPSF.

“We need to keep winning,” Nelson said. “UCSD is a good scrappy team, and we can’t take them lightly. In the past they have been known to take the first game off of us and make us worry.”

Nearing full strength, UCLA is in the perfect position to keep on winning.