Emotions were running high Friday night as the No. 9 UCLA men’s volleyball team faced No. 5 USC, but it was not just due to the typical tension of the crosstown rivalry.
Friday night’s match against the Trojans lasted two hours and 50 minutes. The match lasted significantly longer than a usual five-set match, mostly due to numerous disputed calls.
There were two highly disputed calls in the fifth set, one of which nearly reversed the outcome of the match.
“It’s just another part of the game, to get bad calls,” senior setter Matt Wade said. “They happened throughout the match, but when it comes down to it, at the end of games like that, it’s real tough to take those calls.”
The first controversial call was a no touch on USC blockers as senior opposite Sean O’Malley spiked a ball into the USC block. The ball eventually hit the antenna, and because of the no-touch call by the Trojan blockers ruled by the officials, the ball was last touched by O’Malley and the Bruins fell behind, 10-12.
The call that nearly reversed the entire match was on a spike by Trojan sophomore outside hitter Murphy Troy. When Troy’s spike seemed to be wide of the line, UCLA players and fans stormed the court before the linesman called a touch by a Bruin.
“There were calls like that the whole match,” O’Malley said. “That’s just part of the game. I’m sure I would be singing a different story if we had lost.”
Arguments ensued and continued into the next point, where UCLA assistant coach Brian Rofer called out a USC rotation infraction to the down official. During this disagreement, Troy served an ace past a seemingly out-of-focus UCLA defense.
USC took the 15-14 lead and was serving for the match that already seemed to have been UCLA’s victory.
After about 10 minutes of arguing among officials and the UCLA and USC benches, emotions were running high as Bruin junior outside hitter Garrett Muagututia blazed a critical kill to tie the set at 15.
“It was definitely an emotional game,” O’Malley said. “Garrett still maintained his energy, and he put some crucial balls away, and we pulled it back out.”
The junior’s performance led the Bruins to an eventual 19-17, fifth set victory.
BRUINS HUNKERING DOWN: With their final home match in the past, the Bruins will conclude the regular season with a pair of matches this weekend against No. 4 Stanford and nearly winless Pacific.
Due to their low position in the standings, the Bruins will not host a quarterfinal match. If they move on from there, the Bruins will have to travel to the home of the top seed in the conference for the tournament finals and semifinals.
The NCAA Final Four, which takes place at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, is the next and final potential set of matches for the Bruins.
“We started playing a little bit better on the road, now,” Scates said. “I want to get over to play Pepperdine again. This is what I’m looking for. I know we can do a better job than we did last time.”
The men’s volleyball team also showed a high level of intensity during the Friday game not seen earlier this season. Redshirt senior quick hitter Jamie Diefenbach added that USC’s presence at the match brought the UCLA team to feed off the emotion in the rivalry as well as the crowd’s passion.
AROUND THE MPSF: In a critical match between the top two teams in the nation, No. 1 UC Irvine blew visiting No. 2 Pepperdine away in three sets.
No. 8 Long Beach State upset visiting No. 3 Cal State Northridge in four sets. Northridge, along with UCI and Pepperdine, clinched home-court advantage for the quarterfinals after this weekend.
Stanford, USC and BYU remain in contention to be the final site of a quarterfinal match. UCI and Pepperdine will also be especially competitive this weekend as they both fight for the top seed in the tournament.
Long Beach State clinched a playoff berth and UCLA remains fighting for the final playoff spot with No. 10 UC San Diego.