All of a sudden, the men’s volleyball team is back on track.
The No. 10-ranked Bruins defeated Division III UC Santa Cruz in four games, 30-20, 27-30, 30-15 and 30-25, at Pauley Pavilion Wednesday night in front of 542 fans. With the win, coach Al Scates’ team improved its overall record to 12-9.
The win was the second in as many days for the Bruins, who entered the week on a four-game losing streak on the road at UC Santa Barbara, Cal State Northridge and Ball State.
Pauley Pavilion has been just a little bit more friendly to the Bruins than those road venues. The Bruins have been able to beat both UCSC Wednesday and Lewis Tuesday.
Sophomore Garrett Muagututia and junior Sean O’Malley once again led the UCLA charge against the Banana Slugs, recording 40 out of the team’s 75 kills. Muagututia tallied 21 kills and O’Malley had 19.
The Bruins also received a solid performance from redshirt junior Jamie Diefenbach who tallied 11 kills.
Junior outside hitter Ryan Ratelle delivered an excellent performance off the bench, contributing 10 kills.
There were many similarities between the win Wednesday against UCSC and the victory over Lewis the night before.
In both games the Bruins got key performances from Muagututia and O’Malley. And in both games senior libero Tony Ker reached an accolade.
On Tuesday, Ker set the school’s all-time record for digs, and on Wednesday he passed the 1,100 career dig milestone in the second game of the match.
Ker, a native of Valenica, had 13 digs against UCSC to push his career total to 1,108. It was Ker’s 12th double-digit kill performance on the season.
UCSC was led by senior Bryan Shires and sophomore Brad Sullivan. Sullivan had 15 kills, and Shires added five digs and 13 kills.
The Banana Slugs were able to win the second game of the match, but none of the others were as closely contested.
With the loss the Banana Slug’s record slipped to 10-6. All six of those defeats have come against Mountain Pacific Sports Federation teams.
The match marked the end of a streak of non-conference games for the Bruins.
Now the team will return to MPSF play against UC Irvine on Friday night, about a month before the conference playoffs begin on April 16.
The Bruins will have to travel to the Bren Center in Irvine for the game Friday, which starts at 7 p.m.
UC Irvine won the 2007 NCAA Championship, but the Anteaters have not dominated this season.
The team currently holds an overall record of 10-10 and has the No. 6 ranking in the American Volleyball Coaches Association’s March 3 poll.
The competition only gets tougher for the Bruins after the Irvine matchup, as UCLA hosts No. 2 Brigham Young University at Pauley Pavilion next week.
The Cougars have lost just one game this season. They defeated the Bruins twice last year at home, sweeping both matches.