NCAA Volleyball Championships : UCLA Continues Pauley Magic for Title

The NCAA men’s volleyball championship game played out to a familiar scenario at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion Saturday night.

As it had done in six previous Final Four appearances at Pauley, UCLA won the national title, this time by defeating Stanford, 15-1, 15-13, 4-15, 15-12, before a crowd of 7,244.

“I expected us to do this,” UCLA Coach Al Scates said. “But I didn’t expect Stanford to be that good.”

It was the 13th national title for UCLA, which won its last championship in 1987.

The victory over Stanford extended to 20 UCLA’s unbeaten streak in playoff matches at Pauley and gave the Bruins a 35-2 series record against Stanford.

UCLA’s victory also kept the national title in Southern California. The Bruins, USC, Pepperdine and San Diego State, all of which compete in the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn., are the only schools to win championships since the NCAA began sponsoring men’s volleyball in 1970.

Scott Fortune led Stanford with a match-high 23 kills, but the Cardinal never was able to establish the rhythm that helped it sweep UCLA in a WIVA match April 19 at Pauley.

“A couple of weeks ago they embarrassed us,” said UCLA hitter Trevor Schirman, who had a team-high 21 kills and an attack percentage of .474. “I think at that point in the season they peaked.

“Our coaches did a good job getting us ready to peak at the right time tonight.”

UCLA also made a minor personnel change since the last meeting, moving hitter Matt Whitaker from the right to the left side so he could avoid matching up with the 6-foot-6 Fortune. Whitaker responded with 16 kills Saturday night.

Buoyed by the noisy crowd, UCLA blitzed Stanford in the first game behind the play of Schirman, who had four kills, and Mike Whitcomb, who had several stuff blocks.

“They got off to a good start, and that set the tempo for them,” Stanford Coach Fred Sturm said.

Stanford committed several serving, passing and hitting errors. The Cardinal settled down in the second game and fought back from a 12-7 deficit to tie the score at 12-12 on a kill by Dan Hanan.

Anthony Curci served for UCLA with the score 13-13, and the Bruins won the game when Fortune hit a dink attempt out and then hit game point into the net.

Stanford won the third game behind Fortune’s four kills and four hitting errors by the Bruins down the stretch.

“Usually when you win the third game and take away momentum, you win the match,” Scates said. “I was real proud of the team. They sucked it up and came back.”

The Bruins won the fourth game by taking a 13-8 lead. Schirman served match point that was won when Fortune hit the ball long.

Penn State defeated Ball State, 15-13, 15-11, 15-6, for third place.