Bruins Move Closer to Another Crown

Adam Naeve is UCLA’s tallest men’s volleyball player and he became Ohio State’s biggest obstacle Thursday night.

Naeve’s imposing presence at the net pulled the Bruins out of their brief funk in the third game and put them in position to win their 19th national title with a 30-21, 30-20, 22-30, 30-24 victory over the Buckeyes in the NCAA semifinals at the Pyramid in Long Beach.

Since losing to Stanford on April 13, UCLA (24-7) has won five in a row and has a shot at its sixth title in eight years if it defeats Brigham Young Saturday. BYU (22-4) defeated Penn State, 30-28, 28-30, 30-28, 30-26, in the other semifinal.

Naeve, a 6-foot-10 senior middle blocker, hasn’t experienced a NCAA championship since his sophomore year in 1998. He sat out last season to try out for the U.S. national team and watched the Bruins win title No. 18 on television.

Against Ohio State, Naeve had a team-leading 15 kills and no errors in dominating the middle.

“He was on tonight and we gave him the ball,” UCLA Coach Al Scates said.

Naeve teamed with fellow quick hitter Scott Morrow for 23 kills, easily winning the battle with Ohio State’s 6-7 duo of Todd Hill and Adam Pedersen. UCLA setter Rich Nelson had 54 assists.

“I didn’t really have to tell [Rich] anything,” Naeve said. “I think he recognized that. I just told him to set me high and I’ll put it away for you.”

Ohio State Coach Pete Hanson said there was little his team could do against the All-American hitter.

“We didn’t have anyone to stop Adam Naeve when they set him in the right position,” he said. “Nelson did a good job going to those guys.”

It was Naeve’s blocking at the start of the fourth game that got the Bruins going. In the rally scoring format, an early lead is essential and Naeve had two blocks and a kill to give UCLA a 6-1 lead and forced the Buckeyes to play uphill.

“They came out really fired up in that third game,” he said. “It was kind of disappointing not to put them away. I just wanted to make sure the match didn’t go to five.”

UCLA dominated the first two games with great balance. Mark Williams had six kills in the opening game and Matt Komer had a kill and a service ace to trigger a five-point run that gave them the advantage. In the second game, Cameron Mount got hot from the outside and the Bruins won 10 of the final 15 points.

Ohio State (21-7), which lost the NCAA title match in three games last season, did not go quietly. Junior outside hitter Pieter Olree, clearly the most exuberant player on the court, led the Buckeyes to an early 6-3 lead.

The Buckeyes held the advantage throughout the game with the help of four service aces.

But UCLA responded in the fourth game. The Buckeyes got as close as 23-19 but seven service errors squelched any larger rallies.

“It stopped our momentum,” said Olree who had 14 kills. “We were out there trying to serve tough and make something happen. We tried to served as hard as we could to see if we could do something.”