No. 1 UCLA men’s volleyball defeats crosstown rival USC

The weather report said it was 55 degrees in Westwood on Saturday evening. But inside Pauley Pavilion, a fire was raging as two crosstown rivals squared off in a heated conference match.

No. 1 UCLA (7-0, 4-0 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) came out on top against No. 15 USC (0-6, 0-4) with a four-set winner (27-25, 23-25, 25-21, 25-19).

The Bruins had a solid game in nearly every aspect.

Sophomore outside hitter Jake Arnitz led the way offensively with 14 kills and a .480 hitting percentage.

“Actually I had no idea what my stats were or how many kills I had,” Arnitz said. “I don’t focus on how I’m doing. Obviously, in the moment, if I make a mistake that’s frustrating but you have to move on … I’m just working at taking it one point at a time.”

The dynamic pair of junior setter Hagen Smith and freshman setter/hitter Micah Ma’a put up great numbers once again, combining for 42 assists and 13 kills.

A pair of other stats – aces and blocks – also helped the Bruins to victory Saturday.

Junior middle blocker Mitch Stahl had three of the team’s 11 service aces and was in on six blocks – two of them solo. Redshirt sophomore middle blocker Oliver Martin got a hand on seven blocks.

Defensively, the Bruins were able to completely shut down the Trojans’ leading scorer, junior outside hitter Lucas Yoder. Prior to Saturday’s match, Yoder had a team-high 60 kills but he was limited to a lone kill at a -.200 clip against the Bruins.

“We just tried to take what we could take,” Ma’a said of UCLA’s defense against Yoder. “And hopefully we could make (Yoder) work hard and earn it. I guess he had a little bit of a rough night but in other aspects of his game he was great.”

LISTEN: Set Six Episode 2, featuring Ma’a and a breakdown of the season so far.

The match started with some sloppy play from both sides, with low hitting percentages and errors abundant. Lead changes were done in swings, as one team would go up by three or four, only for the other to catch up and go on a run of its own.

After four ties in the last five points, the Bruins finally put the opening set away 27-25.

The next set saw the Bruins jump to a huge early lead only for the Trojans to battle back for a 25-23 victory, but the home team won the third set without many fireworks.

The fourth always seemed to be in UCLA’s favor. Leading 22-19 late in the set, a two-handed slamming kill by Stahl fired up the team and crowd. USC did its best not to succumb but its efforts fell short. On a hard-hit ball, Martin dug it and sent it arching high above the net, landing – just barely – on the line. USC argued the call but to no avail.

The final point of the match came on of a solo block by Stahl. The veteran leader turned around and roared as his teammates rushed the court.

“It was a great battle today,” said coach John Speraw. “I know ‘SC hasn’t played great volleyball early in the season but we knew they would come out here and play really hard – and they did.”

The Bruins play their fourth and final nonconference match Monday at Pauley Pavilion against the unranked Princeton Tigers (0-3).