UCLA men’s volleyball didn’t take its losses to BYU – or its drop in the standings – hard at all.
Instead, the No. 4 Bruins (22-5, 16-5 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) dismantled the No. 3 Stanford Cardinal (19-4, 17-4) in straight sets Thursday night at home (27-25, 25-18, 25-22).
UCLA was not the same team that got swept by BYU over the weekend, and Stanford was not the same team that beat Bruins in late February.
“They’re a really good team,” said sophomore outside hitter JT Hatch. “We served the ball well which didn’t allow them to set their middles. So we beat them in an out-of-system game. But overall, it was a great first game after the BYU losses, great team volleyball.”
In nearly every aspect, the Bruins outplayed the Cardinal, led by Hatch and fellow sophomore Jake Arnitz – both of whom had stellar games.
The outside hitters posted double-digit kills, and Arnitz was part of five blocks. On the other side of the net, Stanford did not have a single player in double digits for kills or even points.
Junior setter Hagen Smith had his best game in weeks, posting 21 assists and six kills at a .556 clip.
As a team, the Bruins hit .307 on the night and laid down 9.5 blocks. That number, however, masked the utter dominance the home team displayed at the net.
UCLA contested every attack and got their hands on many of Stanford’s swings – a very different effort than what was seen against BYU.
“BYU is a very different team,” said coach John Speraw. “Each team gives you different matchups, different opportunities and different schemes so tonight we were just able to some things tonight, defensively, and we played a much better volleyball match.
The Bruin defense held the opposing hitting to a dismal .158 percentage with 18 attack errors and only 33 kills.
In fact, the Cardinal hit -.029 in the second set – an abnormality compared to their normally high-powered offense.
As well as forcing Stanford’s unusually poor offensive performance, UCLA handed the visitors their first straight set loss this season.
On the Bruins’ side, there were no ill-effects from the losses against the Cougars. Those losses, if anything, fired the home team up.
“We were happy to play BYU at the end of the season, no matter the outcome,” Arnitz said. “So we took that and said, ‘We know where we are now, we know where we stand, so we just have to get back in the gym and work hard.’ It’s playoff time, it’s crunch time, so we have got to get things going.”
