NCAA Men’s Volleyball : Bruins Sweep Past Trojans to Serve Up a 12th National Championship

With little else in his favor, USC Coach Bob Yoder banked on the percentages going into the NCAA men’s volleyball final.

His Trojans, winless in six matches against UCLA this season, couldn’t go on losing to the Bruins forever, he figured.

But UCLA had some numbers on its side, too, including a starting lineup with only one player under 6 feet 4 inches and the fact that it has never gone three straight years without winning an NCAA championship.

After losing in the regional final the last two years, the Bruins broke through to beat USC, 15-11, 15-2, 16-14, Saturday night and won their 12th NCAA title before 8,952 at Pauley Pavilion.

“I wanted to go out the way I came in,” said UCLA senior Asbjorn (Ozzie) Volstad, who was a freshman starter on the Bruins’ unbeaten 1984 team. “It was two years without a championship, and that’s good incentive.”

The victory was the 27th straight for UCLA, which was never even extended to five games by USC this season.

The USC band, which arrived late, must have been aware of the long odds.

But USC, which lost in the final for the third straight year, didn’t go easily.

The Trojans, in fact, were on the verge of winning the third game, rallying from a 10-4 deficit with nine straight points. They had game-point at 14-13 when Chris Martz served into the net.

“We gave them a freebie,” Yoder said.

Actually, what they did was allow themselves to make it home a little earlier.

“A lot of times, the team that wins the third game goes on to win the match because it has the momentum,” UCLA Coach Al Scates said. “But I don’t think it could have happened tonight because the Trojans were so tired.”

UCLA rallied, getting two points on a block and then a spike down the line by Volstad, the tournament most valuable player, and then getting the winner on a spike by USC’s Owen McKibbin that landed out of bounds.

It was the closest game of the match.

UCLA (38-3) seemed to have the first game wrapped up when it increased a 6-5 lead by scoring seven straight points. Volstad’s block of an Adam Johnson spike made it 13-5. The Bruins still led, 14-7, before USC rallied, fighting off game-point eight times.

Finally, UCLA’s Matt Sonnichsen ended the game with a spike off the block.

The second game was so one-sided that the crowd’s loudest cheers were reserved for USC timeouts.

Yoder said that UCLA, which was successful on 45.1% of its kill attempts, played a “pretty flawless games offensively.”

Volstad was successful on 52.6% of his kill attempts and all-tournament selections Arne Lamberg and Jeff Williams hit .548 and .464. Don Dendinger hit .391.

USC (29-11), which needed three hours to beat Penn State in the semifinals Friday night while UCLA was rolling through Ohio State in about 75 minutes, hit .312 as a team.

“A couple of players weren’t crisp,” said Yoder, asked about the effects of the Penn State match. “(Mike) Hurlbut, especially, was fatigued. “We could have used him being a little fresher.”

Hurlbut’s attacking percentage was .000.

Volleyball Notes

Penn State needed only 70 minutes to beat Ohio State, 15-3, 15-6, 15-6, in the consolation match, improving its record to 5-0 against the Buckeyes this season. . . . Penn State finished at 26-4, Ohio State at 13-20. . . . Penn State, which will have all its starters back next season, lost only to USC and UCLA. “We had a good record, but we didn’t play well enough to win our biggest matches,” junior setter Javier Gaspar said. “That’s what we want to accomplish next year.” . . . Penn State Coach Tom Tait, on the Nittany Lions’ semifinal loss to USC: “We started playing two-man beach defense, and that’s not the way to beat a team like USC. We should have ben digging balls a lot easier than we were.” . . . Tait said his team is close to ending the West Coast dominance of the sport. “We’re hoping we can learn enough from this year to win the national championship next season,” he said. “I don’t think we’re far away at all.” . . . Penn State’s 6-10 All-American, Chris Chase, was successful on 56.3% of his kill attempts in the two matches, including an attacking percentage of .605 against Ohio State. . . . Chase was joined on the all-tournament team by Gaspar, USC’s Adam Johnson and Dave Yoder and UCLA’s Jeff Williams, Arne Lamberg and Ozzie Volstad, the tournament MVP. .