UCLA’s middle blockers both stood out Wednesday – redshirt junior Oliver Martin for his twelve errorless kills and senior Mitch Stahl for his return to the court after missing three matches due to injury.
“Mitch is healthy, but still not jumping really well. But you can see the impact he had from the service line,” said coach John Speraw.
No. 7 UCLA (12-7, 8-6 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) beat No. 5 Lewis (15-4, 9-2 Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association) on Wednesday in four sets.
The win comes after the Bruins lost six of their eight matches in February and is UCLA’s first win against a ranked opponent since beating Pepperdine on February 11.
“We knew Lewis was treating it like a playoff match because they have to win a couple games to get the at-large bid,” Martin said. “We knew we had to come out with fire and treat it like a playoff match as well.”
The Bruins shot out to a six point lead to start the match and led by at least three points throughout the first set en route to a 25-20 win. UCLA was led by sophomore outside hitter Dylan Missry with five kills in the first set alone to lead the team to a .400 hitting percentage – double Lewis’ .200 clip.
The second set went similarly for the Bruins, who improved their hitting percentage to .542 and won 25-21. Through two sets, however, UCLA trailed with only 1.5 blocks compared to Lewis’ seven.
The Bruins finished the match with just six blocks compared to the Flyers’ 14, but junior outside hitter Jake Arnitz said that he thought the team did a good job of adapting throughout the match to Lewis’ offense.
“They did a couple things that we didn’t expect them to do, and for us to be able to adapt in the middle of the game on the court was a big thing,” Arnitz said. “Some hitters were hitting things that we just didn’t see in the game plan, so we were trying to change up our defensive spots and blocking.”
Lewis took its first lead of the match at 10-9 in the third set, and UCLA could not regain the lead throughout the third set. The Flyers took the set 25-20 and held the Bruins to a hitting percentage of -.037.
Speraw attributes the team’s poor hitting in the set to Lewis’ tough serving.
“Kyle Bugee came off the bench for them and it was just an incredible service night for him,” Speraw said. “He had four aces and zero errors, and he was hitting it probably 70 miles per hour. He put a lot of pressure on us, got us in trouble – I think it was six or seven points that he scored for them – so anytime that happens you’re going to struggle to win a set.”
UCLA rebounded in the fourth to win the set 25-18 and take the match. Junior outside hitter JT Hatch came off the bench in the third and fourth set to tally a season-high four aces and help lead the Bruins to victory.
UCLA will face unranked Harvard (6-7, 3-4 Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association) on Saturday.