The UCLA men’s volleyball team wasn’t going to be satisfied with anything less than a 20th NCAA Championship this year. So when UC Santa Barbara defeated the Bruins on Saturday, their title dreams were shattered and UCLA was reasonably dejected after the unexpected loss.
“At UCLA you can never be satisfied unless you win a national championship,” redshirt sophomore Jamie Diefenbach said. “I guess I feel good about a lot of things that we’ve done this year, but no, I’m not (content with the season).”
“I’m not satisfied because I think we were in great physical condition,” said coach Al Scates, who has his team lift weights to build stamina specifically for postseason competition. “I think that if we kept more serves in we would’ve won the fourth game and I think we would’ve won the fifth game.
“But I’m proud of our guys that battled back. This team has a lot of heart and I’m very proud of them.”
In its miracle 2006 season, the team went on a 14-match tear to win its long sought-after 19th championship. The Bruins thus had high hopes of repeating that feat this year.
And come April, it looked possible. With a mediocre 14″“10 record at the end of March, UCLA closed out its regular season on a 5″“0 run, taking down USC, UC Irvine and Long Beach State, three teams it had lost to in their first meetings. It appeared that the Bruins were once again peaking as the playoffs loomed, ready to sweep for another championship.
“We were just playing so much better at the end of the season,” senior Steve Klosterman said. “It was almost a repeat of last season playing Santa Barbara in the first round. We were playing our best volleyball now and we were peaking at the right time.
“But yeah, it was a little disappointing (not to pull off another miracle season).”
Not long after the players stood in a devastated shock after Saturday’s loss, they were in good spirits to reflect that the season was a success after all, even though the match wasn’t. Particularly after losing four senior starters from last season’s championship squad, Scates was pleased with the transition his freshmen made in filling his departed players’ large shoes.
“(Outside hitter Garrett Muagututia) had a phenomenal freshman year,” Scates said. “He’s going to be an outstanding player. … The main thing (setter Kevin Ker) did was he had a chemistry with Klosterman. Once those two got together, Klosterman’s numbers went way up. So that was crucial to our success. That’s what turned our season around.”
Klosterman also commended his younger teammates on their growth and maturity throughout the season.
“There are a lot of freshmen, especially true freshmen, that got major playing time this year,” Klosterman said. “I think next year’s team will be even better than this year’s team.”