Oh, how hindsight is 20/20.
As the men’s volleyball team pulled out a quick, yet uninspired victory over UC San Diego on Thursday, it could not have known that the match was perhaps a forewarning of things to come the following night against No. 5 Long Beach State.
The No. 4 Bruins swept the Tritons 30-21, 30-28, 30-26 in what coach Al Scates deemed to be an unnecessarily close contest. With a lack of fervor coming out of the blocks, UCLA then fell to the 49ers in four sets the following night, losing 27-30, 18-30, 30-24, 28-30. The loss marks the Bruins’ first in league play this season, and they fall to 5-2 and 3-1 in MPSF action.
Winless in the league, UC San Diego (1-4, 0-4) was steamrolled by the Bruins in Game 1. But in what was perhaps a dip in intensity, the Bruins let their guard down in the following two sets, allowing the Tritons to storm back into the match.
“It’s about attitude,” Scates said. “I think we took this team for granted. When it got close then we’d turn it on and win, but there’s no reason to make it that close.”
In hopes of a better performance from his team against the undefeated 49ers, Scates sent his starting seven back out onto the court Friday. But the intensity and fire was lacking once more.
In the first two sets, the Bruins were simply outplayed and were unable to convert kills, so Scates emptied the bench.
Hitting poorly, opposite Brett Perrine was the first to be pulled from the match and was replaced by Ryan Ratelle. Soon following, D.J. Stromath, Kevin Ker, Shaun Nichols and Jeremy Casebeer filed onto the court to relieve the starters of their duties.
What ensued was a much more inspired and fired-up showing from the Bruins.
“We started off a little slow,” said libero Tony Ker, who, along with outside hitter Garrett Muagututia, was the only starter to play the entire match. “(When) the new guys came in I said, “˜Guys, we’ve got nothing to lose right now. Let’s go out there and just rip away.’ And I think they did a really good job of coming out there and being really aggressive.”
And did they ever respond.
Ratelle ripped 11 kills on the night, and Stromath went error-free in his five kills and four blocks. Nichols also pounded five kills and hit 0.800 in the team’s Game 3 comeback.
“I don’t know dude, the bench stepped up,” Stromath said. “Coming in we had a lot of fire and a lot of energy, and we wanted to prove ourselves. If the first team isn’t going to do it, somebody’s got to do it. We managed to pull out Game 3. Game 4 was a bummer that we couldn’t pull it together in the end.”
With 14 lead changes in the Game 4 dogfight, the set certainly could have fallen either way. But the team hopes it never has to get to be that close ever again.
“There were a couple of things that I saw at the end of the game that could have turned it,” Scates said of a few late missed defensive assignments.
But if the Bruins couldn’t get pumped up for UC San Diego and Long Beach, it can be assured that there will be a fire burning for the upcoming USC match on Wednesday.