The UCLA men’s volleyball team gained more than a victory
on Saturday.
It finally found its heart.
Playing with passion in front of an intense home crowd of 1,750,
the Bruins overcame No. 2 BYU for their first Mountain Pacific
Sports Federation win.
After losing to BYU on Thursday, UCLA (5-4, 1-2 MPSF) was
searching for redemption, and came out with an emotional level that
the Cougars (7-1, 5-1) were unable to match in the Bruins’
5-game victory, 26-30, 30-22, 25-30, 30-26, 19-17.
“This team doesn’t quit,” senior setter Dennis
Gonzalez said. “That’s the character of our team. Even
after we lost a few nights earlier, the team came out fired up and
played with a lot more emotion. Everyone was saying that we
weren’t a contender, but we proved that we can beat the top
teams in the league.”
The high emotional level that characterized the No. 6 Bruins
during the match did not appear until after a Game 1 loss. In the
first game, UCLA stayed within a few points of the Cougars, but
seemed sluggish and was done in by 11 service errors.
But the Bruins were not about to give up so easily. After a
lackluster Game 1 performance, they came out in the second game
with a fury that the Cougars were powerless to contain.
The revitalized Bruins thoroughly dismantled the Cougar offense,
holding BYU to a .032 hitting percentage and getting seven blocks.
The UCLA offense also came to life, hitting .417 behind the solid
efforts of junior Paul George, who had five kills in seven
swings.
“We struggled in the first game, but in the second game we
decided that we were going to come back and nobody was going to
stop us,” junior Steve Klosterman said. “We came
together as a team, and fed off each others’
emotions.”
The Bruins kept up their intensity in Game 3, jumping out to an
11-6 lead before a BYU time-out slowed UCLA down. The Cougars went
on a 6-1 run to tie the game and took over from there to take a 2-1
game lead.
Both teams played like they wanted the win in Game 4, and the
Bruins countered the .522 Cougar hitting percentage by hitting at
an amazing .594 clip with 22 kills and only three errors.
After two consecutive aces by senior David Russell that tied the
game at 11-11, the Bruins were at an emotional high. Senior Damien
Scott temporarily let his emotions get the best of him, and
received a yellow card for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Although the Cougars stayed close, the Bruins were in control
from that point, taking Game 4 with six kills from Klosterman
(.857) and five kills from senior Nick Scheftic (.714) en route to
a 30-26 victory.
“We came out to win, and knew that we were going to battle
back and win Game 4 and Game 5,” George said. “We were
all fired up, and the emotional level of wanting it more allowed us
to come out on top.”
The inspired play of the Bruins continued into Game 5, in which
UCLA came back from a 4-6 deficit to take the lead at 8-7. Every
point was a battle from then on, and the Bruins survived a Cougar
match point at 14-15 with consecutive kills from Klosterman and
Gonzalez.
The Bruins finally got the 19-17 win over previously undefeated
BYU on a combined block by Russell and George that sealed the
match.
“BYU has the most talent in the nation, so it was a very
big win,” Klosterman said. “It felt really good to beat
BYU, especially after Thursday’s loss.”
A major factor in the win was the balanced offense of the
Bruins, who had five players with double digit kills while no
player took more than 30 swings.
Klosterman led UCLA with 16 kills, but Scott, George and
Scheftic were close behind with 14 each. Russell also contributed
10 kills and paced the Bruins with seven blocks.
“I was trying to find the hot hitters by judging momentum,
and seeing who was fired up,” Gonzalez said. “Everyone
was really into the game, so I was just trying to feed everyone as
much as possible.”
The Bruins were bolstered by being much more prepared for the
match than they were on Thursday, as evidenced by their 15 blocks
and 30 digs.
“We were very critical of some of the things the players
were doing during an hour videotape meeting (on Friday),”
UCLA coach Al Scates said. “Then we had an hour and a half of
video before the game where we looked at the tendencies of all
their servers.”
With some of their best hitting, blocking, and digging of the
year, the only aspect the Bruins need much improvement on is
serving. UCLA finished with 32 serve errors and only seven
aces.
“Right now, this is the worst serving team I ever
had,” Scates said. “But we’re going to keep
banging jump serves, and by the end of the year, we’ll be
better.”
The biggest positive the Bruins can take away from their victory
is the emotional intensity with which they played.
“It was such an emotional win for us, and we kept saying
that there was no way we could lose the game,” George said.
“Our fans fired us up too. It was the best crowd I’ve
ever played in front of at Pauley. It was such a great experience,
and we had fun more than anything. Wins like this are what we play
for.”