MEN’S VOLLEYBALL : UCLA Routs Stanford for Automatic Berth in Final Four

Top-ranked UCLA defeated No. 2 Stanford, 15-4, 15-7, 15-13, Wednesday night before a crowd of 1,397 at the UC Irvine Bren Center to win the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship, gaining an automatic berth in the NCAA Final Four.

With the victory, the Bruins advanced to the national tournament for the first time since winning the national championship in 1989 at Pauley Pavilion.

Advancing to the Final Four this year was so important to the Bruins that they dared not even whisper those words this week.

“We didn’t want to jinx anything,” said Mike Sealy, UCLA’s senior setter. “We just kind of kept our mouths closed and silently focused.”

Dan Landry had 16 kills to lead the Bruins, who had 15 blocks to the Cardinal’s three.

UCLA (22-3) was the Mountain Division champion and Stanford (18-5) the Pacific Division champion.

Stanford drops into Friday’s semifinal round of a tournament that includes teams that finished below the division winners.

Cal State Northridge, Cal State Long Beach and Pepperdine won quarterfinal matches earlier Wednesday. The winner of the tournament will join UCLA and two eastern teams in the Final Four on May 7-8 at Pauley Pavilion.

The Matadors (20-9) got 33 kills from Coley Kyman and 31 from Ken Lynch en route to a 15-10, 13-15, 15-6, 15-5 victory over USC.

Jason Mulholland had 55 kills for the Trojans (12-10), tying an NCAA record.

Cal State Long Beach, led by Brent Hilliard with 39 kills, defeated Brigham Young, 15-13, 15-13, 15-13.

The senior outside hitter who helped the U.S. Olympic team win a bronze medal at Barcelona last summer increased his NCAA-record kills total to 2,972 as the 49ers improved to 17-12. The Cougars fell to 15-10.

Tom Sorensen had 40 kills to lead defending NCAA champion Pepperdine past San Diego State, 15-12, 15-2, 7-15, 13-15, 15-11. The Waves are 18-5. San Diego State fell to 17-13.