The teams were the same, the venue unchanged and the result all too familiar.
Just one night removed from a five-set collapse to No. 1 Hawai’i (21-3, 16-2 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation), No. 12 UCLA men’s volleyball (11-11, 7-11) was swept 3-0 in Tuesday night’s rematch at Pauley Pavilion.
Coach John Speraw shook up his lineup after each set, searching for the right combination of players but with few results, as the Bruins were overpowered across the entire court.
“I just didn’t think that we had very much energy out there on the court, so I just wanted some guys to get out there and compete,” Speraw said. “I really felt like we had a good warmup and we were gonna get it, and we just didn’t. … We just got beat by a better volleyball team tonight.”
Only two UCLA starters remained on the court by the end of the night: freshman outside hitter Jake Arnitz and freshman setter Eric Matheis. Arnitz led the Bruins with seven kills but only had a .053 hitting percentage, while Matheis contributed 25 assists.
“I didn’t feel like there was a negative energy coming from last night, but we just came out flatter tonight,” Matheis said. “It was a tough game, but there’s so much that we can improve on and there’s so much that we can get better at even in the next week.”
One of those improvements will have to be in the offense. Speraw has pinpointed that aspect of the Bruins’ game as a major weakness, and that was apparent Tuesday. UCLA hit just .114 to Hawai’i’s .465, committing almost four times as many hitting errors.
“We let them start feeling good, and once they started feeling good, they felt like they could do anything,” said sophomore outside hitter Michael Fisher. “Once their confidence got up – they’re the No. 1 team in the nation – you just can’t stop them when they get like that.”
The energetic play that shocked the Rainbow Warriors in the first two sets of Monday night’s match was nowhere to be found Tuesday. Without it, the Bruins struggled against a stronger team, their record falling to .500 for the first time this season.
UCLA, still precariously in eighth place in the MPSF, has a week off before traveling to No. 3 Pepperdine on Tuesday for its final road match of the season. The team will be looking for some revenge after the Waves swept the Bruins in January.