One more point.
With the season on the line, all the UCLA men’s volleyball
team needed to clinch the victory and move on to the conference
semifinals was a single point.
Instead, Cal State Northridge reeled off six straight points in
Game 5 to steal the win and possibly end the Bruins’ season
much earlier than expected.
With No. 2 UCLA’s shocking 25-30, 27-30, 30-18, 30-22,
14-16 loss, the team’s hopes of winning its first NCAA
Championship since 2000 are hanging by a thread after only the
quarterfinals of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation
playoffs.
The entire season was played in anticipation of competing for
the national title, so losing to the seventh-seeded Matadors was
definitely a surprise for UCLA (25-5, 18-4 MPSF).
“It’s the worst possible way to end the
season,” senior Paul Johnson said. “Everything else we
did this season doesn’t matter. Anything short of a NCAA
Championship would have been a disappointment, but this is really
bad. We should have won.”
After the Matadors (19-13, 10-12) upset UCLA, several Bruin
players collapsed in tears on the court while other members of the
team were crying in the stands. As Northridge fans rushed the court
to celebrate, sophomore Steve Klosterman kicked the volleyball into
the rafters of Pauley Pavilion and another player tore off his
shirt and rushed into the locker room.
It was a scene that was unimaginable just minutes before. In the
fifth and deciding game Saturday night, the Bruins looked well on
their way to sealing the victory, holding a 14-10 lead. Yet the
Bruins were unable to close the Matadors out, committing more
hitting errors than kills or blocks on the next six points.
Northridge then completed the improbable comeback with three kills
and two blocks of their own.
“We thought we had the game won at the end, but Northridge
just got lucky,” senior Allan Vince said. “I was pretty
sure we would win because we’ve been in that situation before
and done well, but they were everywhere the ball was.”
“One pound. That’s all we needed. One ball to hit
the ground. We were the better team, but they just had the luck of
the draw.”
Early on, it seemed as though the Bruins would never even have
the chance for match point. After poor performances in the first
two games, the Bruins were on the brink of being swept by a team
they had defeated three times this season.
Hitting .154 with 10 errors, the Bruins quickly dropped Game 1
to the Matadors, who were led by Nils Nielson’s nine kills.
Northridge’s momentum carried over to the second game, which
they won by digging 17 Bruin hits.
“We expected the game to be easier than it was, but they
just played hard and caught us off guard,” Johnson said.
Early in Game 2, Johnson was taken out after he turned his
ankle, forcing UCLA coach Al Scates to use junior opposite David
Russell at the middle blocker position. Johnson returned for Game
3, but not before the Matadors had tallied another game
victory.
One of the reasons UCLA lost the first two games was because it
took time for junior setter Aaron Dodd to get accustomed to the
playing style of the Bruins. After starting setter Dennis Gonzalez
broke his finger last Thursday, Dodd had only one day to prepare
with the first team, with whom he had not practiced at all this
season.
“Dodd was a little shaky in the first game since he had
not set since the Dino Cup Finals in October,” Scates
said.
“He hadn’t set in competition in a long time, so he
needed some break-in time. It was asking a lot of Dodd to come in
and set after only a day’s practice. He certainly set well in
the third and fourth and fifth games, though.”
Once Dodd became comfortable with the players, the Bruins
rebounded in the third and fourth games, hitting a combined .525,
behind the strong play of seniors Gray Garrett and Johnson.
Seldom-used Garrett led UCLA with 24 kills for the night (.550),
four total blocks and two aces, while Johnson added 11 kills and
seven blocks.
Klosterman and senior Jonathan Acosta also contributed, smashing
11 and 12 kills, respectively.
“My setting improved as the games went on, but it took a
little bit for the team to get going,” Dodd said. “We
started rolling in the third game. It just didn’t turn out
our way. Northridge played good defense when they needed
it.”
Now, the Bruins will have to rely on a backdoor route to get
into the Final Four. They once controlled their destiny, but six
points later, their fate lies in the hands of the NCAA Tournament
committee.