UCLA Has Help in Rise to Top

You could say the UCLA men’s volleyball team owes Pepperdine a thank you note for its hard work last week. On Feb. 2, the undefeated Bruins were Volleyball magazine’s No. 1 ranked team, but were No. 2 in the American Volleyball Coaches Assn. poll behind Brigham Young.

Then came help from Pepperdine.

The Waves defeated BYU not once, but twice--on Thursday and Saturday--and UCLA is now on top of both polls. The Bruins did their part by defeating Long Beach State and improved to 8-0 overall and 5-0 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

But if you ask the coaches, none of this means a thing at this point of the season.

“Our goal, like every year, is to win the national championship,” said Bruin Coach Al Scates, who has lead UCLA to 16 titles. “It’s nice to be No. 1, but this stuff doesn’t mean a whole lot.”

The NCAA tournament begins April 30.

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Like Scates, Pepperdine Coach Marv Dunphy isn’t caught up with the rankings, although the Waves (6-1, 5-1) climbed a notch to No. 2 in both polls.

“Rankings don’t mean much,” he said. “It’s basically a poll that determines where we are all placed in the [NCAA] tournament. It’s secondary to a lot of other things. It all comes down to the end of the season.”

Like the polls, the victories over BYU weren’t much of a deal either.

“It’s not like our guys were doing cartwheels afterward,” Dunphy said. “We played two good matches and we got ‘em. . . .

“I’m like one of those ‘business as usual’ kind of coaches. You’re only as good as your last match.”

Long Beach State understands that. The 49ers were unbeaten and climbing the polls until losses to BYU and UCLA. Now Coach Ray Ratelle is left wondering how good his team really is.

“It was disappointing,” he said. “I was really looking forward for us to play well. I think we were a little intimidated, especially against UCLA. It was a little disheartening.”

The 49ers (7-2, 2-2) dropped a spot in the coaches’ poll to No. 5 and two spots in the Volleyball magazine poll to No. 6.

Long Beach State plays two matches at No. 4 Hawaii next week.

“I think we’ll really see where we are when we go to Hawaii,” Ratelle said. “It’s a real big test. We can’t afford to lose to them twice. We’ll probably look at it as more of a pressure match now.”

As for UCLA, the Bruins are only now starting to play well.

“With five starters returning, we were able to get off to a quick start,” Scates said. “But we can get a lot better. . . . We can becoming a better scoring team.”

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UCLA beat Long Beach largely without 6-10 sophomore Adam Naeve, who played sparingly after he accidentally spilled coffee and burned his arms. Naeve, who led all players with a career-high 38 kills in a victory over Pepperdine on Jan. 29, is expected to return when UCLA hosts an improving UC Santa Barbara team Feb. 18 after sitting out two matches.

The Bruins host BYU in the last two matches of a just-begun 10-match homestand on March 6 and 7.

Pepperdine will try to avenge its only loss this season when it travels to Pauley Pavilion on April 10. UCLA defeated Pepperdine in five games in front of 2,270 at Pepperdine. Long Beach State and Pepperdine meet on March 21.

University Beat Notes

UCLA has named Todd Saldana coach of the women’s soccer team. Saldana, an assistant for the UCLA men’s team from 1989 to ‘94, takes over for Joy Fawcett, who resigned in December after leading the Bruins to their first Pacific 10 championship and a record of 19-3. Saldana had a 6-9-1 record with the Loyola Marymount men’s team last season, and was California Collegiate Athletic Assn. coach of the year in ’95 and ’96 with Cal Poly Pomona. It is UCLA’s second women’s soccer coach in the program’s six-year history.