History wasn’t on the side of the UCLA men’s volleyball team this past weekend in Provo, Utah. Mired in a six-year winless drought at Brigham Young University, the Bruins were also trying to break the Cougars’ NCAA-leading 28-game home win streak.
They never really came close.
Besides a single dominant set, No. 4 UCLA (3-2, 0-2 MPSF) failed to get its footing in a pair of losses to No. 7 Brigham Young University (3-1, 2-0 MPSF).
It was all BYU in Friday night’s opening match. Capitalizing on 17 Bruin service errors and a rough passing night, the Cougars swept the visitors in three quick sets (25-12, 25-17, 25-17) behind a loud and energetic home crowd. With over 8,000 fans packing Smith Fieldhouse over the course of the weekend, the energy was certainly noticeable.
“(The atmosphere) was tough but I’ve been here before – there’s a few of us who have been here before – and it was just kind of a classic BYU matchup here in Provo,” said redshirt junior middle blocker Trent Kersten. “They packed the house, their fans are great, it’s a great environment to play in, and we just gotta learn from it.”
UCLA regrouped after the loss and started much stronger on Saturday.
“We had just gotten smoked the night before so it was an interesting feeling going into (Saturday’s) match,” said redshirt senior opposite Clayton Paullin. “We knew we were going to play better and we ended up executing pretty well. We just gotta keep improving.”
The Bruins, led by a relentless defensive block, cruised to a wire-to-wire 25-17 victory in the opening set before dropping a crucial second set 26-24. BYU comfortably won the next two sets 25-20 and 25-15, but UCLA appeared more composed than it had in the first match.
“We played with a lot more energy,” said coach John Speraw. “The situation where you don’t play pretty well one night and then come back and play much better on the other – that’s classic. I just felt good about the way we were able to rebound.”
Kersten paced the team with a .385 hitting percentage over the course of both matches while freshman outside hitter Jake Arnitz added 16 total kills. Defensively, the two matches were starkly different. UCLA had 10 blocks on Saturday after only 3.5 on Friday. Sophomore libero Jackson Bantle also contributed 15 digs in the second match versus a team total 20 digs in all of the first.
“Early matches against good volleyball teams show you the areas of the game where you need to improve,” Speraw said. “It’s an opportunity for us to continue to learn and get back in the gym this week and see if we can make some changes.”