In the first weekend of regular season play, the UCLA
men’s volleyball team seemed to lack the energy needed a day
after sweeping their first two matches.
On Friday, the Bruins played with energy and motivation,
defeating both Stanford and UC Santa Barbara in straight games.
But on Saturday night, UCLA appeared fatigued, falling to Long
Beach State 30-25, 34-36, 25-30, 22-30 in the championship match of
the UCSB/Elephant Bar Collegiate Invitational.
“It was hard to play three matches in two days,”
UCLA coach Al Scates said. “We did not look good at all, and
everyone played like they were tired. There wasn’t really
anything we did well as a team against Long Beach.”
After the graduation of five of the seven starters from last
year’s NCAA finals team, it could have been thought that this
season would be one of rebuilding.
The Bruins (2-1) took a different approach, compiling a 7-1
preseason record and earning a No. 2 preseason league ranking in
the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) coaches’
poll.
UCLA played up to its ranking on Friday afternoon, beating
Stanford 30-14, 30-24, 30-22 in their season opener.
Against the Cardinals, UCLA hit .460, led by senior Damien Scott
and junior Paul George, who had nine and eight kills, respectively.
The freshmen also came up big for the Bruins, with outside hitter
Sean O’Malley adding 10 kills and seven total blocks and
Jamie Diefenbach recording eight kills and five blocks.
The Bruins continued their strong play on Friday night, sweeping
host UCSB 30-23, 30-27, 30-28. George led UCLA with 14 kills in 20
swings (.700) and O’Malley slammed 10 kills as the Bruins hit
at a .421 clip against the Gauchos.
“We played great (on Friday),” Scates said.
“We really hit the ball well, set well, and passed well. Paul
played the best he’s ever played, and Sean had two good
matches.”
After two dominant wins on Friday, the defending UCSB/Elephant
Bar Invitational Champion Bruins were unable to sustain the energy
they played with the night before.
Although UCLA raced to a 26-12 lead in Game 1 against the 49ers,
the Bruins let Long Beach State pull to 27-21 before sealing the
game 30-25.
UCLA could have grabbed a 2-0 game lead, but let the second game
slip away after leading 34-33.
The Bruins didn’t seem to have much in them after the Game
2 loss, quickly losing the next two games to the 49ers.
In contrast to Friday’s solid hitting, the Bruins hit only
.103 as a team on Saturday.
“Neither team played particularly well, and I think both
teams were a little tired,” Scates said. “We
weren’t passing as good as we had, and everything was worse
than on Friday. It was a definite regression. I expected the team
to play better.”
Losing to Long Beach State could have big implications later
this season, as the 49ers were ranked No. 3 by the MPSF coaches and
are expected to be one of the top teams in the country this
season.
Despite the loss, George emerged as a team leader, smashing a
career-high 18 kills and earning All-Tournament honors. Senior Nick
Scheftic was also named to the All-Tournament team.
The team is confident that it will improve as the season
continues and the players gain more experience playing against
tough competitors.
“We have not had very good competition lately, and it was
getting too easy for the first team to dominate the second team in
our drills,” Scates said. “We’re definitely going
to bounce back when we start league play this week. Maybe it was a
good loss because we’re going to come charging
back.”