Before the UCLA men’s volleyball team faced UC San Diego
last night, players and coaches said the team had to be on its toes
against the Tritons: They have a knack for taking the first game
from the Bruins, as they did in UCLA’s win over UCSD in
February.
The Bruins didn’t drop that first game Wednesday night,
though, as they swept the Tritons, 30-27, 30-22, 30-27, at RIMAC
Arena.
“We just tried to come out strong from the start and not
let it take us the whole game to warm up,” senior libero Adam
Shrader said. “We were able to come out quick and stop
them.”
The No.1 Bruins outblocked the Tritons 8.0 to 5.5 and hit .354
to UCSD’s .182 hitting clip. UCLA succeeded by limiting
Triton star Jim Waller, who had 12 kills but was held to a .061
hitting percentage.
“We just followed our game plan,” junior quick
hitter Paul Johnson said.” We shut down their main hitters,
so they couldn’t make a run in the first game.”
UCLA (17-3, 11-3 MPSF) was led by senior quick hitter Chris
Peña, who had 13 kills, and Johnson, who had 10 kills on
10-of-12 hitting. The Bruins also got 12 kills on .474 hitting from
freshman opposite Steve Klosterman, who actually was benched in the
first game in favor of junior outside hitter Jonathan Acosta.
“Klosterman had a slow start and got benched but came back
on fire and hit really well the rest of night,” Scates
said.
Sophomore setter Beau Peters started in place of the injured
Dennis Gonzalez. Gonzalez had an MRI on Tuesday, which came back
negative. But he has an inflamed bursa sac around his knee muscle,
an injury that heals through treatment. Luckily for the Bruins,
Peters is playing very well in Gonzalez’s absence. Peters had
29 assists and seven digs against UCSD (6-14, 2-12) .
“The more he plays, the better he gets,” Scates
said. “He had a good night, and we scored off his
serving.”