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UCLA and Pepperdine met in last year’s national championship. Pepperdine claimed the title

It caused heartaches and tears for many members of the men’s volleyball team. The Bruins were on the brink of winning their 19th national title last May, but Pepperdine washed their title hopes away.

Since then, the No. 7 Bruins have tried to put the loss behind them. But the memories re-enter their minds tonight – they host the No. 3 Pepperdine Waves at Pauley Pavilion on the same court on which Pepperdine beat UCLA last May.

“It sucks to lose the championship, so hopefully we can take out some of that anger on them this week,” sophomore libero Tony Ker said. “You just gotta try to overcome that and get out there and hopefully do our best, win once, and then we’ll remember those things instead of the times that we lost.”

“It was a big disappointment, but (the Waves) played well at the end,” said undergraduate assistant coach and former Bruin outside hitter Kris Kraushaar, whose last game as a player was the championship match against Pepperdine.

“We came out, and we played like we knew how to,” Kraushaar said. “We just didn’t get the plays that we needed in the end.”

Those who remember the match more passionately will come out with fire tonight, hoping to avenge the loss.

“We got a lot to prove and definitely want to get this win, get some payback,” junior opposite Steve Klosterman said.

But the Bruins, who entered last year’s tournament as the favorite, won’t have quite as good a shot at beating Pepperdine this time around.

Since the last time the two teams met, the gap between the Bruins and the Waves has grown: UCLA has parted with six of its starters, while Pepperdine has lost only three. This year, the Waves have never fallen out of the top three in the national rankings, whereas the Bruins have been struggling for consistency and have not broken the top five since the 2006 season began.

“We both started off strong, but they seem to be playing pretty well,” Klosterman said. “I think they’ve got the momentum more going into the playoffs.”

Pepperdine, meanwhile, has been doing a little reloading of its own. The Waves have been trying to find someone to fill the shoes of departed 2005 Player of the Year Sean Rooney, who had about a third of the Waves’ kills last season.

Junior outside hitter John Parfitt has stepped up for Pepperdine, adding an average of 3.89 kills per game. Australian newcomer Paul Carroll has boosted the Waves’ kill count as well, contributing an average of 3.52 per game. Combining those two players’ efforts, it seems Pepperdine has not missed a step.

So while the Bruins need a tough effort to beat a solid Pepperdine team, they relish the challenge to prove themselves against one of the best teams in the country. But more importantly, their focus is simply on winning.

“We came up big in one match (this season), and that was at Hawai’i,” UCLA coach Al Scates said. “We play better at home and we’ll have a good chance to (come up big) against Pepperdine. We’ll have a great opportunity to beat some of those teams ahead of us this week.”

“We just need to start playing well against good teams,” Kraushaar said. “We haven’t done that in a while. If we play well (tonight), it’ll be a step in the right direction.”

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