UCLA, Hawaii Earn Showdown for Title

After four months of tuneup matches, UCLA and Hawaii will finally have a championship showdown after both teams posted easy victories in Thursday’s NCAA men’s volleyball semifinals before 3,708 at Pauley Pavilion.

Top-seeded UCLA, which has won 15 titles and is the defending champion, swept Lewis University, 15-7, 15-8, 15-10, while second-seeded Hawaii needed four games to defeat No. 3 Penn State, 15-9, 15-3, 13-15, 15-7.

The Bruins, 23-0 in home NCAA championship matches, started slow but had little problem with the Flyers, who were making their first NCAA appearance in the three-year history of their volleyball program. Behind the near flawless play of senior setter Stein Metzger, the American Volleyball Coaches Assn. co-player of the year, UCLA (25-5) used a variety of attacks to advance into its 19th championship match on Saturday.

“I don’t know why we started like that,” UCLA Coach Al Scates said. “The pace was a little slower than what we’re used to but I’m sure Saturday’s match will be different.”

Paul Nihipali, a junior opposite, led the Bruins with 17 kills, eight digs and four block assists. Brian Wells and James Turner added 12 and 11 kills respectively, while Tom Stillwell had 10 kills and a team-high .667 attack percentage.

Victor Rivera and Chris Borden led Lewis (31-5) with 11 kills each as the Flyers had a .179 attack percentage as a team.

After being eliminated by Penn State in five games in last year’s semifinals, Hawaii (27-2) jumped on top of the Nittany Lions (24-6) early Thursday night. With an estimated 2,000 Rainbow fans in attendance, Yuval Katz and Jason Ring helped them to easy 15-9 and 15-3 wins in the first two games.

Katz, a sophomore hitter named AVCA co-player of the year with Metzger, had eight kills and a .727 attack percentage in the first game. Ring, a junior middle blocker who transferred from Pierce College, took over in the second game with eight kills in nine attempts.

Penn State, which has reached the NCAA championship six consecutive years and won the title in 1994, rallied to win the third game, 15-13, behind All-American middle blocker Ivan Contreras--who finished with a team-high 20 kills.

In the fourth game, however, Hawaii’s overall balance was pivotal in a 15-7 win.

In three head-to-head matches, all played in Hawaii, the Rainbows defeated the Bruins in their first two meetings but UCLA won in five games March 2.