COLLEGE VOLLEYBALL : Bruins Battle Back to Beat Hawaii; Final Four Is Next

Things were a bit sedate after UCLA’s volleyball team beat Hawaii on Saturday night.

“Well, I can’t get too excited; we’ve been here before,” said Jeff Nygaard, UCLA’s top player. “We still have two more games before we’re done.”

The 12-15, 15-13, 15-7, 15-5 victory before 2,833 at Pauley Pavilion gives UCLA the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship and an invitation to the NCAA final four.

Ho-hum, another trip to the final four.

Calm or not, UCLA knew it was in for a long night well into the first game.

The Bruins took only 58 minutes Friday night to beat Brigham Young; it took nearly 50 minutes to complete the first game against Hawaii.

Nearly fifty minutes . . . and then the Bruins lost.

“Well, we knew it would was going to be a long one,” Nygaard said. Last night, well I don’t know what happened--Brigham Young is a better team than they played.”

UCLA continued to struggle in the second game Saturday night, as Hawaii jumped to a 12-8 lead. But Hawaii got caught in a rotation in which UCLA’s Nygaard and Paul Nihipali were attacking on the front line. That combination spearheaded a 7-1 run and the Bruins won, 15-13.

The momentum carried over to the third game, in which UCLA took a 5-0 lead and won, 15-7.

Nihipali led UCLA (29-1) with 26 kills and Nygaard had 21. Also for the Bruins, Erik Sullivan had 21 kills with a .741 hitting percentage.

UCLA, winner of 35 in a row at home, beat Hawaii twice earlier this season, once at home and once at Hawaii.

The NCAA final four starts Friday at Springfield, Mass. Despite losing the MSPF final, Hawaii (19-6) is expected to receive an at-large invitation.

For Hawaii, Yuval Katz had a match-high 27 kills and Jason Olive had 21.