With a 3-2 victory over Cal State Northridge on Saturday night
in Santa Barbara, the UCLA men’s volleyball team won the 40th
Annual Elephant Bar Invitational to open its season.
And while the Bruins are pleased with the tournament victory,
they are most happy with the way they went about winning ““ as
a team.
“There were no individual actions,” senior opposite
Marcin Jagoda said. “Everyone played for each other, and our
defense was great.”
UCLA (3-0) won 30-19, 29-31, 30-21, 26-30, 15-12 on the strength
of solid serving and hitting. Freshman opposite Steve Klosterman
finished with 22 kills and three aces while sophomore outside
hitter Damien Scott and junior outside hitter Kris Kraushaar had 11
kills apiece.
“They (both teams) were sure hitting well,” UCLA
coach Al Scates said. “We had a blowout game in the first,
when we served them off of the court. It was a very interesting
match.”
The Bruins out-hit Northridge .435 to .336, and Scates said that
was the difference in the match.
To get to the finals, the Bruins defeated Pacific on Friday and
USC Saturday morning ““ both 3-0 sweeps.
UCLA beat the Trojans 30-21, 30-21, 30-21 as Jagoda and senior
outside hitter J.T. Wenger each had 10 kills and Kraushaar
contributed nine. With UCLA down 5-1 in the second game, Jagoda
entered the match and provided the spark the Bruins needed.
“We played very well against USC,” Scates said.
“USC beat Irvine in five, but against us the most they could
score was 21 points. Even the second game when they got ahead,
Marcin came in and that was it.”
For the Bruins, two players’ tournament performances
deserve special attention.
Kraushaar played three well-rounded matches, while Klosterman
had a breakout match against Pacific, leading the team with 21
kills.
“I felt the team played really well,” senior quick
hitter Chris Peña said. “We had a long preseason ““
a bumpy road in the preseason ““ and now we are playing really
well. We are playing very fluid.”