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Champion for At Least Another Day: Defending Champ & No. 2 UCLA Manages No. 1 Michigan State 9-5 to Return to National Title Game
2010 Men's National Collegiate Club Schedule & Scores
CEDAR CITY, Utah -- Juniors Max and Mike Scott (La CanadaFlintridge, Calif.) combined for four goals and eight saves to share Player of the Game honors as defending National Champion and No. 2 ranked the University of California-Los Angeles handled No. 1 Michigan State University 9-5 to reach the program's second straight National Championship game.
UCLA will meet either No. 4 University of Texas or No. 5 Miami University for the championship on Sunday, November 14 at 12:45 p.m., while MSU will face the loser of the Texas-Miami semifinal at 11:30 a.m. in the third place game.
From virtually the opening whistle to the closing horn the Bruins led the Spartans as UCLA won the opening sprint and fed Max Scott who whipped a backhanded shot which trickled past MSU goalie Robert Spiegel (So., Dexer, Mich.) with 6:39 on the first period clock. Following five minutes of back-and-forth play, Michigan State tied the game with 1:25 left in the period when Chase Plank (Jr., Grand Rapids, Mich.) fired a shot which sailed the UCLA goalie Mike Scott's hands, ricocheted off the cross-bar and fell into the cage to knot the damage at one-all.
However, Caleb Greig (Sr., Wellington, New Zealand) sniped a shot from the perimeter into the upper right corner of the cage with 15 seconds left in the period to put UCLA back in front to stay.
The second period saw only one shot elude Spiegel or Scott as Cameron Virjee (Jr., Rolling Hills, Calif.) rocketed a step-out shot on a man-advantage to make it 3-1 with 3:04 remaining in the first half.
Needing a stop to stiffle the Bruins long enough to recover and respond, MSU received another goal from Greig who dented the cross-bar for a bar-down on a man advantage chance to build the Bruins' lead to 4-1.
Michigan State finally was able to stop UCLA as Andrew Weichman (Sr., Ann Arbor, Mich.) collected a rebound three meters out from the cage on a man-up opportunity and buried the second chance to pull the Spartans to within 4-2 at the 4:45 mark.
The goal appeared to enrage the Bruins who charged down the pool for a man-up goal by Frank Hwang (So., La Canada Flintridge, Calif.) off an inside pass and quick shot at 4:09. Max Scott (3:21) continued the scoring run for UCLA by setting up at two-meter set, spinning and whipping a shot into the lower right corner of the cage before Virjeje (2:02) rocketed a shot into the upper left corner of the cage as an exclusion expired to take a 7-2 lead.
However, three-time National Champion (2000, 2006, 2008) Michigan State would not go down without a fight as Jake Marsh (Jr., Okemos, Mich.) beat Spiegel from in front of the goal mouth with an advantage tally to trim the deficit to four.
The lead continued to melt in the opening minutes of the fourth period as Marsh skipped in a shot with 6:11 to play to pull MSU to within 7-4.
Facing the potential of the most dramatic comeback in the history of the championship, UCLA turned to the Scott duo as Max accepted a pass from Virjee on the left wing and weaved a shot past Spiegel at 4:33 to return the led to four (8-4).
Again, the Spartans charged once more into the fray as Plank scored off an inside pass on a man-up opportunity to make it 8-5, but Max Scott responded with a sweep shot under Spiegel's arm as the shot clock expired for the final salvo of the contest.
In cage, Mike Scott turned aside only four chances, but helped the Bruins' defenders lock-up the Michigan State shooters for much of the first half to build a lead and hold on for the victory.
For MSU, Spiegel concluded the game with eight stops, while Marsh and Plank netted pairs of markers.
To win the program's second straight title, UCLA will need to overcome the "Curse of Uno" as the Burins, which hold the No. 1 position in the tournament field due to representing last year's national championship division, will need to terminate a jinx.
Since the 2002 California Polytechnic State University Mustangs won the championship from the No. 1 spot, teams holding the No. 1 position have finished second (2003, 2006, 2007, 2008), third (2004) and fourth (2005, 2009), but never first.
Ironically, the only team to win back-to-back men's National Collegiate Club titles were the 2001-02 Mustangs, a category which UCLA would like to join and expand to two programs tomorrow afternoon.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | -- | Final | |
| No. 1 Michigan State University |
1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | -- | 5 |
| No. 2 University of California-Los Angeles |
2 | 1 | 4 | 2 | -- | 9 |
UCLA Goals: Max
Scott (4), Cameron Virjee (2), Caleb Greig (2), Frank
Hwang
MSU Goals: Jake Marsh (2), Chase Plank (2), Andrew Weichman
Saves: UCLA - Mike Scott (4) ; MSU - Robert Spiegel (8)
Exclusions: UCLA - 9 ; MSU - 9
Advantage Opportunities: UCLA - 3-for-9 ; MSU - 3-for-9
Sprints: UCLA - 4-for-4 ; MSU - 0-for-4
Officials: Rick Marsh, Perry Korbakis
