Junior outside hitter Robart Page pumped his fists in the air as he celebrated an emphatic block. Redshirt junior outside hitter Dane Worley came over and bumped him on the chest, sporting an ear-to-ear smile. There was just no way of stopping the Bruins Wednesday night, and the two knew it.
After taking down BYU, the No. 1 team in the nation, last week in dominant fashion, No. 3 UCLA continued its winning ways against No. 6 Pepperdine Wednesday night in Pauley Pavilion.
The Bruins swept the Waves 3-0, extending the team’s set win streak to six. Coach John Speraw credits the team’s recent success to solid defense.
“I thought we had a very nice defensive performance and we out-dug them by a significant margin,” Speraw said. “I think we’ve seen over the last couple of matches that our defense has improved.”
From the start, both teams traded the lead back and forth and the first set was tied a remarkable 18 times. The Waves got off to a poor serving start; the Bruins benefited from six early service errors.
Junior outside hitter Gonzalo Quiroga heated up early on in the game and had a total of six total kills in the first set.
“We got them out of their system and it was easier for us to get more blocks and more digs,” Quiroga said. “The whole team played on a really good level today.”
UCLA came out strong in the second set and had an early 9-6 lead. Pepperdine rallied back with three straight points to make the score 9-8, but the Waves would come no closer.
The Bruins easily took the set 25-20 and had control of the lead the entire time.
“We made some big adjustments after the first game and shut down their hot hitter, Maurice Torres,” Page said. “We were able to get some good touches the second and third game.”
The Bruins fell behind early in the third set and forced Speraw to call a quick timeout.
The Bruins responded and rallied back to tie the match, 8-8 after a 5-0 run. UCLA had the lead 24-23 near the end of the match, and Speraw called another timeout before Quiroga ended the set and match with a kill.
Quiroga had a team high of 16 kills, with Page adding eight of his own.
UCLA will play its last regular season match on Friday night against rival USC at 7:30 p.m. in Pauley Pavilion, but the game’s score will count entirely for crosstown bragging rights.
The Trojans, 6-17 in conference play, are out of the running for the eight-team MPSF tournament, while the Bruins were locked into the tournament’s No. 4 seed with Wednesday’s victory.