Eleven pairs of bright orange shoes were the flashiest part of UCLA’s match against visiting Princeton on Monday night, as the Tigers’ footwear gave a stronger impression than either team on the court.
But, despite the less-than-dominant performance, the Bruins continued their undefeated season with a three-set sweep.
No. 1 UCLA (8-0, 4-0 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) handled unranked Princeton (0-2) in straight sets (25-19, 25-23, 25-16) to win its eighth match in a row – the team’s best start since it began the 2000 season with a 9-0 record.
The win was far from commanding, though. Both sides committed a number of miscues – rallies that went back and forth only to end with a ball dropping between two players, attacks that somehow managed to hit the bottom of the net and plenty of service errors – that contributed to the night’s sloppiness.
The Tigers’ defense made things difficult for the Bruins, but, ultimately, UCLA’s offense was not to be stopped.
“They were digging everything over there,” said freshman outside hitter Dylan Missry. “We stayed steady and played the flow of the game. We were the better team in the end and pulled it out.”
Noticeably missing from the match were junior middle blocker Mitch Stahl and sophomore outside hitter Jake Arnitz – two of UCLA’s offensive stalwarts this year. Missry helped pick up the slack with a team-leading 10 kills and sophomore outside hitter JT Hatch added nine of his own.
“We need to rest those guys. This is a busy stretch of volleyball but this is the one that counted the least,” said coach John Speraw. “I think it was good for some of the guys that haven’t had an opportunity to get out there … I was really pleased that we had a chance to get some guys out on the court who deserve the right to get on the court. We have some depth, and I think they did okay.”
Speraw added that the starters would get back into the gym Tuesday in preparation for the upcoming Long Beach State match.
Princeton came into the match with a single regular season match under its belt – a loss at the hands of No. 7 Ohio State. It had been more than two weeks since the visitors had competed in an NCAA match.
The break was evident with the new-look Tiger squad.
Princeton was without its two-time All-American outside hitter Cody Kessel who graduated after the 2015 season. He took a large part of the Tigers’ offensive force with him, so they were forced to rely on their defense to remain competitive Monday.
The defense held strong at first, but UCLA’s hitters eventually broke the opposition down.
“This was a tough match, not a lot of energy but we pushed through it,” said redshirt junior John Zappia. “Without a lot of energy from the crowd we had to pick it up on our own, so I think that was the biggest challenge tonight. Set one tonight we started down, set two tonight we started down, but we kept battling back point by point and finished strong.”
UCLA will play host to No. 6 Long Beach State (6-1, 3-1 MPSF) on Wednesday night in Pauley Pavilion.