Hosting its second Midwestern team of the season after sweeping Loyola Chicago at home last Wednesday, fourth-ranked UCLA (13-9, 9-8) was able to find similar ease against Ball State on Wednesday night, defeating the Cardinals in three games, 30-20, 30-22, and 30-11.
No. 15 Ball State (10-8) came to Westwood for its fourth stop on a five-match road trip, after winning the first two matches against Quincy and Carthage, but dropping its most recent to Ohio State. The Cardinals boast several key players who are nationally ranked in offensive statistics, including senior Nick Meyer with 4.46 kills per game (ranked 13th in the nation) and junior Matt McCarthy in hitting percentage with 0.482 (ranked 9th).
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, they would meet a fate similar to their Midwestern counterpart, Loyola Chicago.
The Bruins kept the led from game 1 through the end of game 3. The closest the Cardinals came to challenging the Bruins was in the second game when they came within one point midway through. That did not last for long; the Bruins realized what had to be done and surged ahead to grab game 2. Game 3 was no contest. The Bruins held the Cardinals to 11 points.
Game 3 also contained one of the more entertaining moments of the volleyball season. Near the end of the game, Bruin coach Al Scates decided to use all six of his substitutions to take out his starting lineup and put in his entire second team.
“I’ve never done that before,” said Scates. “I looked up (at the score) and said this game is won and these boys actually beat the first team in practice yesterday … so I knew they were ready to play.”
For senior captain Paul George, he was expecting to see the second team come out all season.
“I kept thinking (Scates) could do this a lot earlier in the game,” said George laughing. “I’m tired, I’m old. Come on, get me out of here.”
Freshman Dylan Bowermaster took advantage of the opportunity, and in the few points the second team played, he smashed two kills and added a block as well.
“There was no pressure because we were up by so many points,” said Bowermaster. “I just went in there and we all just had a good time.”
Senior Steve Klosterman had another strong night with 19 kills and a 0.692 clip. George added 13 kills, while redshirt freshman Brett Perrine slammed three aces. Blocking was especially good, as the Bruins had 11 total blocks as a team.
“I liked what I saw tonight ““ a very disciplined block,” said Scates. “We’ve worked hard on our defense and it was good tonight.”
The win also gives the team momentum, something they appeared to lose last week in a three-game sweep by second-ranked UC Irvine. Against the Anteaters, the Bruins committed 24 service errors, 12 of which came during game 3. Serving was something the Bruins were not going to mess up against Ball State.
“It’s a good match to get some momentum to boost our numbers a little bit,” said George. “We’ve looked at a lot of video and seen what we did wrong down (in Irvine). Realistically, we just didn’t show up at Irvine.Had we, it would’ve been a much better game.”
Friday night brings a rematch against Ball State at home, where the Bruins expect a story similar to Wednesday night’s victory.
“They’ll have a better idea of who we are, we’ll have a better idea of who they are,” said George. “They will probably key in on a couple different things, and we’ll just work hard to get better at it.”
FREE VOLLEYBALLS: Free mini-volleyballs will be given to the first 250 fans at Pauley Pavilion on Friday night when the Bruins take on Ball State once again. UCLA Recreation cardholders also get free admission to the game.