Photo

UCLA sophomore setter Dennis Gonzalez (center) celebrates with his teammates after sweeping the U

M. volleyball: Men’s volleyball tops USC in 3-0 bout

Daniel Miller
Published: Friday, January 30, 2004

Junior outside hitter Kris Kraushaar only needed one serve to get acclimated. Then he let it fly on the Trojans in the Bruins’ 3-0 victory at USC’s North Gym on Thursday night.

“On the first one, I was just trying to get it in – then I was going after it,” he said. “If I do that, they are going to make errors.”

Kraushaar’s assessment was correct: Behind his tough serving, the No. 3 men’s volleyball team had little trouble dispatching the undersized Trojans 30-25, 30-20, 30-24. The unranked Trojans (1-6, 0-4 MPSF) recognized No. 3 UCLA’s (7-1, 3-1) service attack but could do little to combat it. That, coupled with a 20-error night, did in the Trojans.

“The key to the match was no service errors by UCLA and errors by USC,” Trojan coach Turhan Douglas said. “They (UCLA) ran off all their points with Kraushaar serving – we haven’t seen a serve that tough so far. It seemed like they got six points in a row every time he was serving.”

Scanning the box score, Kraushaar’s excellent serving was not apparent – he only had one ace. But his expert ball placement set up some easy points for the Bruins.

After a relatively close game one that saw USC pull within one point at 21-20 before eventually losing, game two was all UCLA. With the score tied at 8-8, UCLA went on a 12-5 run and never looked back. USC made several fundamental errors as the game drew to a close, when J.T. Gilmour fumbled a set and Ian Gallagher served into the net to hand UCLA the game.

“USC was a good passing team,” UCLA coach Al Scates said. “But some of their smaller players didn’t hit like I thought they would.”

USC featured the 5-foot-10 Pedro Leal, a highly touted Brazilian player whom the Bruins did not face in their 3-0 victory over USC on Jan. 10. Leal was ineffective against the Bruins, making only seven kills, as the Bruins limited him to a .133 hitting clip. UCLA kept USC to a .223 hitting percentage, while the Bruins hit .353.

USC stayed close with the Bruins in game three. A 5-0 Trojan run made the score 24-20, and a few UCLA substitutions were called that seemed to calm the Bruins. Damien Scott replaced J.T. Wenger while Paul Johnson subbed in for Allan Vince, and that was all UCLA needed to thwart USC’s run and its boisterous crowd.

The Bruins were led by freshman opposite Steve Klosterman, who had 15 kills and hit .500. Senior quick hitter Chris Peña added 10 kills, two aces and two blocks.

“We played pretty well,” Klosterman said. “We came out aggressive and didn’t let up. We served and blocked well, and our blocking is getting better.”

This was the first time the Bruins played in the small North Gym, as the Trojans used to play in the much larger Lyons Center. The 450 fans in attendance were a boisterous bunch, although the Bruins said they enjoyed playing in the hostile environment.

“Having the USC band there, that was a nice touch,” Scates said.