Any questions about BYU’s No. 1 ranking were answered
Thursday as it won its 21st consecutive match against the No. 3
Bruins 33-31, 30-26, 29-31, 32-30 in a tightly fought match before
a season-high 1,728 spectators in Pauley Pavilion.
The match was a chance for the Bruins (20-5, 14-5 MPSF) to prove
they could play against the nation’s finest in BYU (22-3,
18-1 MPSF), and they came through by playing one of their most
spirited matches of the season.
But the Cougars’ combination of setter Carlos Moreno and
outside hitter Fernando Pessoa were too much to handle as the
Bruins lost their fourth consecutive match to the Cougars.
Surrounding the outcome of the match was the controversy over
the eligibility of BYU middle blocker Victor Batista and opposite
hitter Joe Hillman.
Hillman was cleared by the NCAA early Thursday and was in the
lineup against the Bruins, while the NCAA requested Batista be held
out for the match as his eligibility is investigated.
Despite the controversy, the teams were embroiled in a closely
fought match from the beginning.
The first game went back and forth as the Bruins moved out to a
22-21 lead at a critical point in the game.
But a missed serve by the Bruins gave BYU the advantage, and the
Cougars eventually pulled out to a 33-31 victory.
“The missed serves were really a problem,” UCLA
coach Al Scates said. “It was very uncharacteristic, but it
cost us the match.”
The letdown of the first game carried on as the Bruins became
rattled in the second game and quickly fell behind 21-12.
“We lost our composure a little bit in the second
game,” middle blocker Paul Johnson said. “But we played
them tough the rest of the night.”
Scates combatted the Cougars’ early domination by
substituting Jonathan Acosta for J.T. Wenger and Allan Vince for
Johnson.
The Bruins ended up losing the second game 30-26, but the
substitutions gave the Bruins some much-needed momentum that they
were able to carry over into the third game.
“I thought that Jonathan played extremely well and give us
a big boost,” Scates said. “In fact, he was our best
hitter on the night.”
Thursday marked Acosta’s first appearance in four matches,
and he responded well, finishing with a season-high 15 kills.
Acosta’s play was key in Game 3, as his three kills led
the Bruins to a 9-7 lead and a 31-29 victory.
Also integral to the Bruins’ success was opposite hitter
Marcin Jagoda, who substituted for Steve Klosterman at the
beginning of the third game. Jagoda registered six kills in the
game and finished with eight on the night.
“Klosterman was hitting for a very low average,”
Scates said, “and we needed better production from that
position.”
Whatever momentum the Bruins gained in the third game was lost
as the the team committed too many mistakes in the fourth, losing
the match 3-1.
“We followed the game plan really well, but we were just
not consistent,” Johnson said. “I definitely feel that
we can beat this (BYU) team.”
The Cougars were led by Pessoa, a Brazilian who had 20 kills,
and Hillman, who still managed to register 16 kills and 10 digs
despite the allegations surrounding his eligibility.
Bruin fans were able to play off the Cougar controversies with
chants of “USA,” directed at BYU foreign players
Moreno, who is also Brazilian, and Pessoa, as well as chants of
“six more years” directed at Hillman, who had been
suspected of playing his sixth year of collegiate volleyball.