Trailing 19-21 in the second set of Thursday’s match against Brigham Young, UCLA’s Garrett Muagututia went back to serve. He scored nine points in a row, including three aces en route to a serving exhibition that coach Al Scates called “the best run of serving I’ve seen since 2001 when Adam Naeve had 10 aces in a match to get my 100th win.”
Scates said that Muagututia, his senior captain, “was serving to all different spots with a lot of pace on it.”
In the end, Muagututia’s serving was not enough, because the UCLA men’s volleyball team took fourth place out of eight teams in last week’s Santa Barbara Invitational at UC Santa Barbara. The Bruins beat No. 13 UC San Diego in five sets before losing to No. 6 BYU in five on Thursday and went on to suffer a loss at the hands of California Baptist in the third-place game on Friday. The Lancers swept the Bruins in three sets, 35-33, 31-29, 30-19.
The Bruins didn’t appear to have much left in the tank by the time Friday rolled around.
“I guess playing 10 sets the previous day really must have drained us because we didn’t play very well,” Scates said. “We played two deuce games tonight, and in the third game we didn’t show up. We have to win those ones.”
The duo of Levi Cabral and Adiel Tiedjop worked to perfection for the Lancers. Cabral finished with 18 kills, and Tiedjop finished with 10, adding a pair of service aces.
“We could not stop (Cabral),” Scates said. “That guy could be making a lot of money playing almost anywhere. He is very good.”
For the Bruins, their loss to Cal Baptist comes as a surprise, because they beat the Lancers in November’s SAC Tournament as well as each of the past three regular seasons. The Lancers, on the other hand, were the surprise of the tourney, not only dominating the Bruins but also beating No. 7 Long Beach State.
Sophomore quick hitter Nick Vogel, who had five kills in Friday’s loss, hinted at a lack of focus among the team.
“I think we need to focus a little more on staying together as a team,” he said. “Our attitude was a little more relaxed than it should have been. We made some simple mental errors that we can correct. A number of things, including our attitude toward the game, could have been taken a little more seriously tonight.”
Muagututia’s success didn’t end at the service line. The outside hitter finished Friday’s match with 14 kills and a .571 clip.
Given the fatigue, Scates was forced to turn to his bench multiple times and got strong play from setter Kevin Ker, outside hitter Dylan Bowermaster and true freshman opposite Jonathan Bridgeman. Bridgeman earned the starting nod in Friday’s game for his efforts against UCSD and BYU.