MEN’S VOLLEYBALL : No. 2 UCLA Defeats No. 1 Pepperdine

All six starters from last season returned for the UCLA men’s volleyball team, but things are very different this year for the Bruins. They have a desire to win.

Second-ranked UCLA defeated top-ranked Pepperdine, the defending national champion, in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match before 1,808 in UCLA’s John Wooden Center on Friday night.

The scores were 15-9, 15-11, 15-6.

UCLA has not won an NCAA championship since 1989. It is the longest stretch that Coach Al Scates has gone without a title in 23 years.

“Everyone is finally realizing that this is the year we have to go out and get (an NCAA championship) ring and go undefeated,” said Tim Kelly, UCLA’s quick hitter, “and so people came out really ready to let everybody else in the league know that we are going to go undefeated.”

Also, Kelly said that the Bruins felt snubbed because they did not receive a No. 1 ranking in the American Volleyball Coaches Assn. poll, which was released Tuesday. UCLA was picked as the preseason favorite by two volleyball magazines.

Kelly, sidelined the past three weeks because of illness, led UCLA with nine blocks and added 12 kills. UCLA outblocked Pepperdine, 20-5, and had 11 service aces to the Waves’ one.

“I think that we didn’t do a very good job serving and receiving and that hurt us quite a bit,” said Marv Dunphy, Pepperdine’s coach.

The only starter who did not return for Pepperdine this season was its primary passer, Alon Grinberg. In his absence, Dain Blanton and Duane Cameron split the passing duties. Blanton had five receiving errors and Cameron had six.

Tom Sorensen led Pepperdine with 26 kills.

This is the first year of play for the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. Pepperdine and UCLA are members of the federation’s Mountain Division.

UCLA improved to 5-0 overall, 2-0 in the division. Pepperdine is 5-1, 3-1 in the division.