Junior outside hitter Garrett Muagututia had an excellent match Friday night against UC Irvine.
In fact, he led the No. 8 Bruins (4-5, 2-3) to a 30-20, first-set romping of the No. 4 Anteaters (8-2, 4-1) with four aces and 22 kills.
“(Garrett) had a great match,” coach Al Scates said. “Unfortunately, he didn’t have much support.”
And as a result, the Anteaters queued into the Bruins’ one-dimensional attack after the first set, leading to a 20-30, 30-24, 30-17, 30-28 UCI win.
“Garrett lit it up. He was our best server, our best hitter,” Scates said.
Muagututia had a match-high 22 kills, recorded four service aces, hit at a .390 clip and received 32 of the 86 serves.
The Bruins had no other players with double-figure kills and hit .244 as a team, while UCI hit .350 as a team.
In the second and third sets, the Anteaters took over, outhitting the Bruins with 33 kills to UCLA’s 18. In the third set, which started off reasonably close with the Bruins behind 11-8 at one point, UCI out-blocked UCLA 6-0.
“They shut down our offense for two (sets) in a row,” Scates said.
Freshman opposite Kyle Caldwell started the match but was largely ineffective, recording only five kills and four attack errors before Scates replaced him midway through the third set with redshirt freshman opposite Jack Polales.
“Caldwell basically hit the same shot and they were keyed into it,” Scates said.
Polales blazed nine kills on only 12 swings to set up a UCLA comeback late in the fourth set. Though the Anteaters extinguished the Bruin rally, Scates said the 30-28 fourth set could have gone either way.
After resting senior setter Matt Wade near the end of the third set, Scates started him in fourth where he found a groove again, recording 44 assists altogether.
“Had we won that (set) we probably would have had the momentum for the next (set),” Scates said. “It was good to see us come back after getting hammered in (the third set).”
Scates added that, despite the loss, the late surge by the Bruins showed their resiliency and ability to play in a rough environment. The Anteaters drew a crowd of nearly 1,600.
The large crowd also helped the freshmen, who have not played many major road matches this season, gain valuable experience.
“We have to start winning on the road and it was a good start to come back and play the home team tough in the fourth game,” Scates said. “Hopefully we’ll keep improving.”