Needing to begin March with a win to bounce back from a frustrating loss on Wednesday at Long Beach State, the UCLA men’s volleyball team accomplished its goal Friday night at home, sweeping UC San Diego, 30-27, 30-23, and 30-25.
The No. 5 Bruins (11-8, 9-7) came into this match wanting to turn away from the Wednesday night disappointment. That five-game battle to the last point halted the Bruins’ three-game winning streak but continued another, less-wanted streak: the Bruins have not been able to win at Long Beach State for five years in a row.
UCSD (5-12, 2-10) brought to Westwood only two MPSF wins, but those two victories have come against two teams that UCLA has fallen to, Long Beach State and USC.
The first game was competitive, with the match tied up at 23-23 with the possibility of the Tritons taking control. But that’s the closest they would come to victory; the Bruins made the needed adjustments to come away with game one.
And there was no looking back from there. Game two saw the Bruins grab a big lead and ride it until point 30, and game three was just a period at the end of the sentence of defeat for UCSD.
Senior Steve Klosterman, coming off a big week as the American Volleyball Coaches Association National Player of the Week, pounded 10 kills in just the first game and finished with a total of 18. Captain Paul George also contributed with 10 kills of his own, and redshirt freshman Brett Perrine had five kills and seven blocks on the night. The team finished with a 0.413 clip compared to UCSD’s 0.210. Will Ehrman, a lead opposite on the Triton team, was shut down to a .062 clip, greatly hurting UCSD’s ability to match up with UCLA.
This sweep revealed a Bruin team that wasn’t visible against Long Beach.
“At Long Beach State we only had two guys that were hitting well,” coach Al Scates said. “Tonight, everybody hit well. When you hit 0.413 you’re going to win, especially when you’re holding the other team to around 0.200.”
According to libero Tony Ker, the team’s success against UCSD can be attributed to simply having some fun.
“I think (having fun) is one of the most important things,” Ker said. “When people get too tense, they don’t play well, and that goes for any sport. When you’re having fun out there you’re playing your best game and you’re happy to be out there. I love it when the whole team has fun together.”
The Bruin volleyball team now hopes this win is the beginning of a new winning streak as the season progresses through March.
“We’re starting to play real well at home, but now we have to show that we can play well on the road,” Scates said. “We haven’t really done that so far, that’s the next step. We’ve made good progress month to month, January we started out at 4-6, last month we went 6-2, we have to have a better month this month than we did last month.”