Riding the coattails of a dramatic come-from-behind win against Stanford, the UCLA men’s volleyball team was able to earn its first win streak of the season by defeating Pacific Friday night.
The No. 8 Bruins (6-5, 4-3 MPSF) slipped up in the first game, but rebounded to cruise past the Tigers (2-9, 0-6). After stumbling at the start, the Bruins recovered for an easy 25-30, 30-22, 30-25, 30-16 victory.
“It’s our first win streak of the season, actually, which isn’t great,” redshirt freshman opposite Jack Polales said. “But we’re going to look forward now and hopefully keep it going and keep playing well.”
The opposite from Winnetka, Ill. paced UCLA with a career-high 19 kills.
Polales had aid from senior opposite Sean O’Malley, who registered 17 kills.
“O’Malley was on fire (Thursday and Friday),” coach Al Scates said. “Both (Polales and O’Malley) had a lot of kills. It’s good to be able, when we don’t pass or dig well, to throw a high ball out of one of those guys.”
The Bruins did well in hitting and blocking. The team hit at a .371 clip over the four games, including a .632 clip in the deciding set. After being out-blocked in the first game, the tide turned and the Bruins recorded 11.5 blocks. The Tigers only hit .259 with 6.0 blocks.
“I thought it was a great game and great effort by everyone,” Polales said. “I obviously couldn’t have gotten all those kills if everyone wasn’t opening up for me and holding the block for me.”
The serving was on point as well as the team had a season-high 13 aces. Redshirt junior outside hitter Brett Perrine had a team-high three.
“I thought our serving both nights was exceptional,” Scates said. “Three aces and 20 errors is pretty phenomenal. We forced a lot of bad passes. We got some easy swings on overpasses. Our serving game is very good right now.”
Senior setter Matt Wade had 55 assists. Coming off the bench, Perrine and freshman quick hitter Thomas Amberg each had eight kills.
In a rare back-to-back doubleheader, the Bruins picked up confidence heading into a four-game road trip. Home wins over highly-ranked Stanford and Pacific are revitalizing an inconsistent season.
“We’re at the point now where we can lose a game early and come back at the end,” Scates said. “We couldn’t do that earlier in the season.”