Sophomore setter Kevin Ker guided the Bruin offense the entire match to help No. 7 UCLA defeat No. 14 UC Santa Barbara 29-31, 30-21, 30-24, 33-31 at Pauley Pavilion on Wednesday night and avenge the Gauchos’ four-game upset of the Bruins earlier this season.
Now tied with No. 5 Pepperdine for fourth in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation standings, the Bruins (16-11, 11-8 MPSF) clinched a berth in the MPSF playoffs, which start in two weeks.
“What we want to do at this point is win out so we could hopefully host the first round (of the MPSF tournament),” assistant coach Brian Rofer said.
The Bruins must win the MPSF tournament to reach the NCAA Final Four.
On Wednesday, the Bruins dropped the first game despite outhitting, outsetting and outdigging the Gauchos.
“We probably would have the opportunity to get out of here 1-2-3 had we been able to get two more serves on the court,” Rofer said.
In that first game, the Bruins had nine service errors to the Gauchos’ four, and Rofer explained that the Bruins could not make “the mistakes made from a lack of concentration” with so many errors.
The Bruins immediately turned their serving around from the second game and upped their hitting. Garrett Muagututia, D.J. Stromath, Ryan Ratelle and Ker led the charge, each with aces in the second game. With the team hitting .500, Muagututia led the attack with seven kills. The Gaucho attack was nearly silent, hitting only .161.
The Bruins carried the outhitting and outsetting throughout the third game.
The fourth game played out to 33-31 with a late-game rally from the Gauchos. UCSB led 28-26 late but the Bruins tied it at 29-29. The Gauchos took the next point off a kill by senior middle blocker Theo Brunner to take the lead 30-29, but that would be the last lead the Gauchos would have for the night.
Muagututia closed out the match with a kill off of a Kevin Ker set.
“It took a good team effort to win this game tonight,” Ker said.
Ker, who shares time with junior Matt Wade as setter, recorded 70 set assists to help the Bruins hit a .413 clip.
“The team hit .413. That shows that (Ker) is definitely running a real good offense,” Rofer said. “As of right now, he is our starting setter.”
Muagututia, a sophomore outside hitter, led the charge with 26 kills and a clip of .600. Sean O’Malley added a season high of 25 kills.
“When you have four of your five hitters hitting over .400, that’s pretty phenomenal,” Rofer said. “If we can continue that, we’ll be in good shape.”
Wednesday’s win places the Bruins in a position to host the quarterfinal match in the MPSF tournament with a home match remaining against first place Cal State Northridge and a season-ending road trip against No. 8 Stanford and last place Pacific.
The Bruins lost to the Matadors in four games in February. They swept Stanford and Pacific to open this season.
The Bruins will need to win out to host the MPSF quarterfinals.