The UCLA men’s volleyball team was on a roll. It had won
three straight matches for the first time this season. It moved up
from a ninth-place to a sixth-place spot. It had finally gotten
more wins than losses in the conference.
But all of that ended on Saturday when the Long Beach State
49ers got into a groove of their own, beating UCLA 30-23, 32-30,
30-21 and bringing the Bruins’ winning streak to a screeching
halt. UCLA’s conference record fell back to .500 (10-7, 5-5
MPSF), while the 49ers improved to 12-5 (7-4).
“It seemed like the momentum was going for us,
’cause we had three wins and they had three losses, but
anyone can beat anyone at any time,” redshirt senior Damien
Scott said. “I think we should play a lot better, and we know
we can. This is not the way I was picturing my senior
season.”
Coming off three momentum-building wins against Mountain Pacific
Sports Federation bottom-dwellers, UCLA was looking to capitalize
on an out-of-sync Long Beach State team, which had lost three
straight matches. The Bruins, however, found themselves feeling
blue in the bright-blue Walter Pyramid after running into an
unexpected road block.
“We underestimated Long Beach a little bit,” senior
quick hitter Nick Scheftic said. “Long Beach played their
hearts out last night.”
But it wasn’t All-American outside hitter Robert Tarr, on
whom the Bruins had planned to focus, who prevented UCLA from
extending its winning streak. Instead, it was senior Duncan
Budinger who stepped up for the 49ers Saturday night with a
match-high 24 kills. Budinger, who had been a middle blocker for
Long Beach State his previous three seasons, was recently moved to
the opposite hitter position.
“We knew Budinger and Tarr were going to get the majority
of the sets, but we didn’t know how well Budinger was going
to do in his new position,” Scott said.
“Budinger going off more threw us off,” Scheftic
said. “Ultimately it was too late to go with the new game
plan.”
In Game 1 alone, Budinger slammed down 10 kills. But UCLA was
able to respond by getting the ball to Scheftic, who was set up for
four kills not even a third of the way through the first game.
“Our hitting was really good last night, but I think our
blocking and digging can improve,” said Scheftic, who hit for
12 kills and .688 on the night.
Even though the Bruins did not make many hitting errors during
Game 1, they could not put the ball down after the extended plays.
Time and time again the 49ers came up with the upper hand in the
long rallies, outdigging the Bruins 35-26 in the match.
“They were digging better than we were,” UCLA coach
Al Scates said. “So the longer the rally went, the better
chance they had of winning the point. We had a lot of trouble
passing from the second game on. If our setter got the passes that
49ers’ setter Tyler (Hillenbrand) got, we would have been
hitting .400, too.”
The weekend was not all for lost, however. On Friday, UCLA
picked up its 39th straight victory against the UC San Diego
Tritons, winning easily 30-26, 30-22, 30-14.
Unlike in Saturday’s match, the Bruins shone defensively
in the backcourt, amassing 41 digs over the course of the night.
Redshirt junior outside hitter Paul George led the team with
19.
“To get 19 digs is pretty fantastic,” Scates said.
“We passed really well. (Sophomore libero) Tony Ker passed 28
perfect balls ““ nobody made a (service reception)
error.”