Pepperdine Holds Up for Victory

Al Scates, longtime coach of the UCLA men’s volleyball team, learned that you can never take a 6-foot-6, 250-pound man lightly.

The day before the Bruins’ match with Pepperdine in the finals of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament championship at Pauley Pavilion, Scates said that he wanted to wear the Waves’ powerfully built outside hitter George Roumain down.

On Saturday, Scates even conceded the match’s third game, when he took out his star player, Adam Naeve and some of his other starters for a rest.

Scates’ strategy failed to factor in Roumain’s teammates and their desire to win an NCAA tournament bid outright, and the No. 2 Waves upset the top-ranked Bruins, 15-12, 11-15, 15-4, 15-12, before about 3,500.

“George Roumain is the best hitter in college volleyball and one of its best players,” Scates said before the match. “He leads his team and if you best him you best Pepperdine. We’re going to make him take a lot of shots.”

That he did. Roumain had 42 kills on 72 attempts with 13 errors for a .396 hitting percentage.

As a team, Pepperdine hit for a better percentage (.298) than the more talented Bruins (.248). The Bruins, the best serving team in the MPSF, made 27 service errors to Pepperdine’s 17.

Ben Moselle led the Bruins with 17 kills and three digs.

On UCLA’s taking out several starters in the third game, Moselle said the main strategy for the Bruins was to beat the Waves with their depth.

“We do it for two reasons--we want to give our starters a breather and we want fresh legs on the floor.”

Pepperdine (22-4) earned an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament in Honolulu on Thursday. UCLA (26-4) will have to wait to see if it has earned the at-large berth. But because the MPSF is so strong, the Bruins are almost assured of getting it.

Pepperdine won at Pauley Pavilion for the first time since 1986 and won its first match against the Bruins this season.

Pepperdine came from behind in the first and was down, 10-5, in the fourth and final game.

But each time, Roumain, along with Scott Wong and Rick Tune rallied the the Waves back.

“The difference in the last two matches was we were under-prepared and didn’t have enough stamina. Tonight we did,” Roumain said.