This weekend the men’s volleyball team discovered the thin line between winning and losing. And it was as simple as feeding the ball to the player with the hot hand.
The Bruins were unable to capitalize on this realization Friday against the University of Pacific, getting swept 30-22, 30-24, 30-27. But by Saturday’s match against Stanford, they were able to master the numbers game and take down the Cardinal 28-30, 30-23, 30-19, 30-22.
No. 6 UCLA remains even in league play after the Presidents’ Day weekend matches and now stands at 8-7 overall and 6-6 in the MPSF.
Just one week after defeating Pacific at home in a five-game thriller, UCLA fell to the determined and emotional Tigers. The loss was the first ever at Pacific. But what difference did a week make?
“It was exactly the same except they serve really well at home,” coach Al Scates said. “They won the serving battle. They were serving a lot harder than we were and we became predictable. They’re a tough team, a lot better at home than on the road.”
The Bruins’ predictability rested in their poor offensive decisions. Friday, 31 sets went to opposite Steve Klosterman, who averaged a meager .065 hitting percentage on the night. Meanwhile, only half as many balls (16) were set to outside hitter Paul George, who hammered a .500 average.
Both hitters ended with 10 kills on the night, but Scates felt the outcome of the match would have been different had George been set more.
“(George) hit well but didn’t get the ball enough,” Scates said. “We can’t just set (Klosterman) every night. He should have ended up with half the sets Paul did.”
Fixed on mending his team’s offensive woes, Scates gave freshman Kevin Ker the starting nod over setter Matt Wade on Saturday against Stanford.
“I think we’ve really struggled with going to the hot hitter in the right situations,” Scates said. “We gotta pick our spots and get in good situations. We haven’t done that until (Saturday). If you look at our box scores, most of the time the guy with the best average doesn’t have the most sets. I was satisfied with (Ker).”
Ker managed to find the hot hitter Saturday night.
One third of the sets went to Klosterman, who happened to have the highest average that particular match at .441.
The senior put down 19 kills, while team captain George added 11.
“(Friday), I told the two setters, “˜I want to see the most sets go to whoever is hot,” Scates said. “”˜I don’t care who it is.’ (Ker) really picked up on it and found Klosterman and gave him the ball. It was encouraging to see him run the offense well.”
UP-AND-DOWN TIGERS: The unpredictable Tigers, who last weekend lost in five to UCLA and beat UC Irvine in five, made a 180 this week, sweeping the Bruins and getting swept by the Anteaters on Saturday.
“They celebrated over us like they won the NCAA Championships,” Scates said, suggesting Pacific may have been emotionally drained going into its second weekend match.
NEW LEADER: No. 2 Pepperdine took a pair of matches from top-ranked BYU this weekend to take the No. 1 spot in the MPSF standings.