IRVINE “”mdash; On Friday night, the UCLA men’s volleyball
team did something it had avoided for nearly three years. The
Bruins lost a second consecutive match. A week after falling to
Long Beach State, No. 2 UCLA was swept by No. 9 UCI in the Mountain
Pacific Sports Federation opener for both teams. In front of a sold
out crowd of 865 at Irvine, the Bruins (2-2, 0-1 MPSF) were unable
to build on their six-match winning streak over the Anteaters (4-1,
1-0). Instead, UCLA lost its second match in a row for the first
time since April of 2003. “We absolutely did not play well,
and we are not playing UCLA volleyball,” said freshman Sean
O’Malley, who finished with 10 kills and nine digs. “We
knew we had to win this one after our loss to Long Beach, but (UCI)
came out stronger. It’s a major disappointment because this
is a step back for us. We were playing better in November, and we
need to get back to where we were and get our confidence
back.” Although they were swept in straight sets, 32-30,
30-28, 30-24, the Bruins gave a solid effort against an underrated
UCI squad that returned six starters from last year’s team.
UCLA limited the Anteaters to a .176 hitting percentage in Game 1,
and had a chance to win the game when the Bruins were serving with
a 30-29 lead. That last point proved elusive for the Bruins, as UCI
reeled off three straight points to get the win. “We came out
and stuck to our game plan in the first game, and we were doing
pretty good, but there were a couple plays where we made small
mistakes that ended up costing us,” senior Damien Scott said.
The Bruins came out strong leading most of the second game. UCI
stayed with the Bruins, countering UCLA’s .375 hitting
percentage by hitting at a .471 clip, and captured the lead for
good at 28-27. After an 8-8 tie in Game 3, the Anteaters took
command with a 17-7 run. UCLA fought back to within five at 21-26,
but could get no closer. Junior Paul George led the Bruins with 14
kills, followed by Scott with 11, but the Bruins couldn’t
contain UCI’s Matt Webber, who smashed 23 kills for the
Anteaters. “We played a lot better than we played against
Long Beach, but it wasn’t as well as we needed,” UCLA
coach Al Scates said. “The thing I liked about our team was
that we were way behind in the third game but we started battling
back. We started too late to win, but there was no quit in the guys
and they were playing hard at the end.” Even with many of the
same players, the Anteaters presented a much tougher challenge for
the Bruins than the UCI team that went 9-20 last year. Instead of
underestimating UCI’s strength, the Bruins realized that a
win over UCI would not be assured as it has been the last several
years. “Coming into the match, we definitely knew they were
going to be a great team and had a lot of returning guys,”
George said. “We just didn’t execute the way we needed
to.” One problem for the Bruins were the quick sets of
UCI’s fast offense, which made it difficult for UCLA to get
in position for a block. “They run the fastest offense in the
league,” Scates said. “Last year they couldn’t
run their offense against us because we were serving them off the
court, but we lost a lot of our big servers last year.” With
only two returning starters from last year’s team, the Bruins
are still adjusting to the high level of competition, and are
making several mistakes common to young teams. Against UCI, the
Bruins served no aces and made nine serve errors. UCLA also had six
serve reception errors. The more veteran Anteaters had six serve
aces and no serve reception errors. “UCI will be mentioned as
one of the top teams as the season goes on,” Scates said.
“They are probably the most experienced team in the league at
this point, and we’ve got a young squad.” UCLA
doesn’t get much time to improve before its next challenge,
as the team begins competition in the Outrigger Invitational in
Hawaii on Wednesday. The Bruins will be competing against Ohio
State, Penn State, and Hawaii, which are all nationally ranked in
the top 10.
DIEFENBACH INJURED: UCLA quick hitter Jamie Diefenbach tore the
meniscus in his knee during the second game of the Bruins’
loss to UC Irvine on Friday. The loss of Diefenbach was vital as
the 6’7 freshman from Newport Beach entered Friday’s
match as the Bruins’ leading hitter with a .490 hitting
percentage, and leading blocker at 1.42 balls per game. Diefenbach,
who was checked by the team doctor Feinman on Monday, is likely to
have torn both his ACL’s, and could be out anywhere from four
weeks to four months. He will be taking an MRI today on his knee,
and could possibly face arthroscopic surgery. “It’s a
huge loss for us,” Scates said. “He was our leading
hitter, and blocker, so we’re going to have to find his
production from someone else.” Diefenbach, who has already
undergone knee injury before, was at a loss at his words over the
entire situation. “It’s really disappointing, because I
was playing in front of my home town, and I didn’t want to
come out of the game,” Diefenbach said. “When I heard
my knee pop, I knew it was bad.”