Scates: 2012 race one of the most competitive in his 50 years
A
l Scates has seen a lot of volleyball in his half century as the coach of the
UCLA Men’s Volleyball team, but the 2012 season has been the most competitive regu- lar season he can remember. Four different Mountain Pacific Sports Federation teams have been ranked No. 1 in the AVCA Coaches Poll in 2012, including the Bruins.
“I have never seen a conference season with five teams as strong as we have this year,” Scates said about the heated confer- ence race. “We have five teams, maybe six in the conference who could win the national championship and it wouldn’t be a surprise.”
Scates, who has guided the Bruins to 19 national championships in his previous 49 seasons, had an interesting end to his final regular season home match. UCLA left the gym from an April 6 home match against BYU thinking it had won a five-set thriller. A controversial and confus- ing “in/out” call by a linesman with BYU serving for the match with the score 16-15 sparked the controversy. The referee had a difficult time interpreting the linesman’s indecisive hand signals on the serve. The unorthodox call prompted the referee to demand a replay after a long dis- cussion with the respective team captains. UCLA went on to win that set 20-18 and the match.
BYU protested the match, an appeal a MPSF Conference committee upheld the next morning and the two teams were instructed to replay the fifth set from 16-16. BYU scored two points to win the match 24 hours later.
“I have never been involved in some- thing like that in my 50 years of coach- ing,” Scates said. “Let’s just say we were surprised by the decision.” UCLA went on to defeat BYU 3-0 in the second scheduled full match against BYU following the two-point replay.
That left the MPSF race in the hands of Southern California, which took control of the regular season by winning 17 straight conference matches. The Trojans won the MPSF regular season with a 18-4 record followed by Stanford (17-5), BYU (17-5), UC Irvine (17-5) and UCLA (16-6). The Bruins were scheduled to face UC irvine in
FINAL RUN: Al Scates had the Bruins ranked No. 1 for part of 2012.
the MPSF quarerfinals April. 21. A late-steason loss to UC San Diego when starting setter Kyle Caldwell sat out to rest a sore Achilles tendon cost the Bru- ins’ control of the conference race. “It’s going to be an interesting confer- ence tournament,” Scates said. “We would have liked to have won the regular season and had home court advantage but some things were out of our control.”
Al Scates’ coaching milestones
• Years at UCLA: 50 • Career record: 1239-289* • Postseason appearances: 49
Honors: • American Volleyball Coaches As- sociation Hall of Fame • UCLA Athletics Hallof Fame • California Beach Volleyball Associa- tion Hall of Fame • Volleyball Hall of Fame
* Through matches of 2012 regular season. Digital Bonus Page •
USAVOLLEYBALL.ORG | 47
PHOTO: PETER BROUILLET
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