Spikers look for Penn State again

Published: Friday, March 3, 1995

By Eric Branch

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

It doesn't take a super sleuth to figure out who the organizers of the Volleyball Hall of Fame Classic would like to see play in their championship match. In their four-team tournament consisting of UCLA, Penn State, Ball State and Springfield College it's a safe guess that the tournament heads would like to see Penn State and UCLA face off in a rematch of last year's NCAA championship match which Penn State won in a stunning upset.

Conveniently enough, the No. 1 Bruins (12-0 overall) will face No. 15 Ball State (8-5) today in Springfield, Mass., while the No. 4 Nittany Lions (9-2) will square off against the hometown favorite in unranked Springfield (7-1 ) with the winners facing each other on Saturday.

"No, of course we don't expect (UCLA-PSU) in the final because we're going to win it," Springfield head coach Joel Dearing said laughing. "It's really just a battle for second place."

While Dearing may continue in his personal fantasy land, the reality remains that UCLA has never lost to Ball State (11-0 career) and Penn State has owned Springfield (16-3 ). If the Bruins meeting with the Nittany Lions wasn't a foregone conclusion UCLA head coach Al Scates probably would not be sending his team trekking across the country a week before battling No. 2 Stanford and No. 6 Hawaii.

However, even after pounding the Nittany Lions 15-9, 15-11, 15-10 on January 25 in Hawaii another thrashing of Penn State could help push last year's disaster even farther back in the Bruins memory.

"We probably wouldn't be going if it weren't for Penn State," said Scates, who is looking for career win No. 850 against Ball State. "But there's always some special satisfaction in beating them."

Although their meeting may be inevitable, Scates realizes the outcome is in question. Making the outlook murkier for the Bruins is the loss of two opposite hitters in starter Paul Nihipali (knee) and backup Matt Noonan (sprained ankle). Nihipali, who ranks ninth in the MPSF in kills per game (5.87), suffered the injury during the match against Brigham Young last Saturday.

In place of Nihipali and Noonan the Bruins will dust off 6-foot-3- inch sophomore Brett Grube and throw him to the wolves. Grube has never played in a match during his UCLA career.

"We're in a tough situation with all the injuries," Scates said. "But Brett has looked pretty good in practice recently."

Penn State goes to Springfield on an eight-match winning streak. However, even with UCLA's injury situation Nittany Lion head coach Mark Pavlik plans on having his hands full.

"They have so many weapons it's a joke," Pavlik said.