UCLA squashed any doubts about its ascension to men’s volleyball royalty this weekend with a 3-1 win over a highly touted UC Irvine team.
The No. 1 Bruins (5-0, 2-0 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) defeated the No. 4 Anteaters (2-2, 1-1) with set scores of 25-19, 24-26, 25-23 and 25-23.
Junior middle blocker Mitch Stahl and sophomore outside hitter Jake Arnitz stepped into the spotlight to guide UCLA to victory in the clash of two volleyball juggernauts. They each posted 14 kills, with Stahl hitting a spectacular .458 and Arnitz an impressive .344.
The two-headed setting attack of junior Hagen Smith and freshman Micah Ma’a put up a combined 52 assists and 14 kills.
Whereas UCLA boasted a balanced offense, Irvine’s attack consisted of only sophomore opposite Tamir Hershko and junior outside hitter Kyle Russell. Hershko came at UCLA’s defense with 20 kills off of a .436 hitting percentage while Russell added on 15 kills.
Russell’s 15 kills came at a high cost, as the outside hitter’s nine errors led to a poor .162 hitting percentage.
“Russell was afraid of the block,” said redshirt sophomore middle blocker Oliver Martin. “So he really couldn’t get around us most of the game.”
The Bruins started off hot with a 25-19 first set win but then the Anteaters started to battle back.
UCLA bent but never broke during the next three sets. In the second set, the Bruins took a 17-11 lead only to lose 26-24 after a furious Irvine rally exposed some of UCLA’s offensive weaknesses.
“I think there’s some aspects of our offense that we have to iron out,” said coach John Speraw. “The 6-2 (offense) is wonderful for diversity but early in the season it leads to increased errors. … I feel really good, not just because of the win but because some of the areas of improvement are very specific, so I think we can get into the gym and make those corrections and improvements quite quickly.”
The penultimate set had a similar storyline but in reverse. The Anteaters were up early but were unable to hold on as the back and forth set ended up going the Bruins’ way 25-23.
The final set was another close one with 18 ties and five lead changes, but finally sophomore outside hitter JT Hatch delivered a game-winning kill that landed right in front of Hershko.
“We were confident,” Martin said. “We served tough, we were able to hit our targets, we got a couple of good plays and we finally came out on top.”
The Bruins played the UC San Diego Tritons (1-3, 0-2) the next night and won decisively in straight sets with scores of 25-18, 25-17 and 25-14.
The match at the Tritons’ home court was relatively uneventful. The Bruins led almost the whole way with only five lead changes throughout the entire match.
Hatch spearheaded the attack with 12 kills while freshman outside hitter Dylan Missry added nine of his own at a .500 clip. Smith and Ma’a once again had a stellar game with Smith posting 20 assists and six kills on a .667 percentage while Ma’a put up 23 assists and seven kills of his own.
The Bruins haven’t opened a season with a 5-0 record since 2005, when they started 7-0.
“I feel like there’s a sense of not being satisfied. It’s early in the season, our ranking doesn’t mean anything, we’ve got a whole lot of season left to play,” said junior outside hitter Michael Fisher. “So I think everyone’s excited and ready to go, ready to get the rest of the season going and see how far we can take this thing.”
