The dominance is over. After seven years of hard-fought
victories, the UCLA men’s volleyball 13-game winning streak
over rival USC came to an end Wednesday night.
Boosted by a boisterous crowd and a dramatic atmosphere, No. 12
USC overpowered the No. 5 Bruins from the start, winning the first
two games 30-27, 30-17.
From there, the Bruins couldn’t recover as UCLA (5-5, 1-3
MPSF) lost in four games to their rivals 27-30, 17-30, 30-27, 27-30
at the North Gym at USC.
“We just came out flat, and we couldn’t come
back,” redshirt senior setter Dennis Gonzalez said. “We
were never really in a rhythm the whole game.”
It was only the Bruins’ second loss to the Trojans (5-4,
4-2) since 1991, and the Bruins were not in any mood to celebrate
afterward.
“This loss, with this crowd, just makes me want to beat
them that much more the next time we play them,” redshirt
senior middle blocker Nick Scheftic said.
The key for the Bruins on Wednesday was the first two games.
During that time, they were outblocked 10-1 and outhit .383-.088,
and thoroughly outplayed.
After the game, coach Al Scates replaced sophomore libero Tony
Ker and junior opposite Steve Klosterman in hopes of a spark off
the bench.
The move worked for a while, as redshirt sophomore Eric
Chaghouri and freshman Ian Jackson were able to make key
contributions for the Bruins, and the Bruins won game three.
“We weren’t doing many things well in the beginning,
especially our passing,” Scates said. “We definitely
had a boost from Ian and Eric in that third game.”
But the Bruins couldn’t keep the momentum during game
four, committing critical mental mistakes and serving three balls
into the net.
“We can make excuses, but we just didn’t play at our
best,” Gonzalez said. “We just need a consistent effort
out of everyone.”
The bright spot of the night, however, was Jackson, who hit .333
with 13 kills and gave the Bruins some much-needed energy off the
bench coming into the third game.
Wednesday was Jackson’s first game action since joining
the active roster over two weeks ago.
“I hadn’t really been out there before, so I just
tried to give the team a lift,” Jackson said. “I could
see they had trouble blocking the opposite, so I just tried to take
advantage of that.”
His contributions were not enough, however, as the Bruins
finished the night being outblocked 14-5 and outhit .317 to
.234.
The Bruins’ loss Wednesday now drops them to the bottom of
the conference standings and has them off to one of the worst
conference starts in their history.
Scates pointed that out to the players after the game and tried
to use it as motivation.
“He told us we’re at a very low point right now, and
we have a chance to move very high,” Scheftic said. “He
wanted us to learn from this.”
If Gonzalez’s comments afterward meant anything, the
Bruins certainly will.
“We’ve been down before, but we don’t give up.
We never quit,” he said.