NCAA Volleyball Tournament : Stanford, UCLA Tune Up for Title Match Tonight

Volleyball players from UCLA and Stanford played semifinal matches Friday night in the NCAA Division I Final Four with their minds on the same thing: Each other.

UCLA swept Penn State, 15-6, 15-4, 15-9, and Stanford beat Ball State, 15-13, 8-15, 15-9, 15-13, before a crowd of 2,192 at Pauley Pavilion.

UCLA will attempt to win its 13th national championship, and Stanford will try to become the first team other than UCLA, USC, Pepperdine and San Diego State to win the title when the Bruins and Cardinal meet tonight at 7:30.

“It’s like the same thing with the Soviets and the U.S. in the Olympics,” said Stanford hitter Scott Fortune, who was a reserve for Team USA at Seoul last summer. “They were expected to meet in the final. It’s the same scenario with UCLA and us.

“We’re even teams; I don’t think anyone has an advantage over anyone else.”

With its win over Penn State, UCLA extended to 19 games its unbeaten streak in playoff games at Pauley.

Tonight, Stanford is hoping to recapture the form that propelled the Cardinal to a three-game victory over the Bruins on April 19 during Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. competition.

But to do that, Stanford will have to beat a determined Bruin team that looked overpowering against Penn State.

“I think it’s impossible not to have them (Stanford) in the back of our minds,” UCLA hitter Trevor Schirman said. “but we made it a point to come out here and beat Penn State first.”

UCLA hit .419 and committed just 16 errors while dominating the 11th-ranked Nittany Lions from the outset. Matt Whitaker led UCLA with a match-high 21 kills and an attack percentage of .690.

Chris Chase had 17 kills for Penn State, which hit just .179.

“Tonight was a very good team effort,” UCLA Coach Al Scates said. “there was good blocking, and we’re going to need it against Stanford.”

Stanford, which qualified for its first Final Four appearance by beating defending national champion USC and Hawaii last weekend, served and passed inconsistently early in its two-hour match with ninth-ranked Ball State.

Fortune had a match-high 29 kills, and Dan Hanan added 18 for the Cardinal. The two players, both 6-foot-6, also presented a formidable blocking barrier.

Ball State’s Kevin Furnish, who entered the match as the nation’s leading hitter (.454) was limited to eight kills and an attack percentage of just .160.