Not exactly a visit that encapsulates the “aloha”
spirit.
UCLA did not receive a warm welcome back to Honolulu in the
Outrigger Hotels Invitational Wednesday night. Ohio State swept the
five-time Outrigger champions 30-27, 32-30, 30-28, and for the
first time in the two teams’ history, UCLA lost to the
Buckeyes. The Bruins are now 13-1 against Ohio State all-time.
The match was plagued with errors for the Bruins. In game one,
UCLA struggled with their attacking with eight hitting errors.
“We had lots of balls that we hit out over the course of
the match or into the antenna,” coach Al Scates said.
“We didn’t challenge the block in those
situations.”
The Bruins trailed Ohio State for much of the first set, but
went on a six-point run to go up 26-25 on a kill by outside hitter
Damien Scott, who led the team with 14 kills and hit .265.
But UCLA was unable to escape self-inflicted mistakes and
committed a service error to give the Buckeyes a 29-27 lead and
eventually the game.
“In the first game we were real tentative on our
serves,” Scott said. “I think we cleaned it up a lot in
the second and third games.”
The second set started off slowly for the Bruins, with UCLA
trailing Ohio State 4-2. However, those two points came off of two
Buckeye service errors.
Junior outside hitter Beau Peters, who was recently readmitted
to the team this winter, came in for an ineffective Paul
George.
“Beau played pretty well,” Scates said. “(Our
passing) wasn’t very good, but … Peters came in and it got
better.”
Though the Bruins kept game two close with 17 tied scores, as
late as 30-30, UCLA was again unable to close out Ohio State.
UCLA was called with four hits, putting the Buckeyes at game
point 31-30.
Ending game two was an overpass kill by senior outside hitter
Mark Greaves, who was named to last year’s NCAA Championship
All-Tournament team. Greaves led the Buckeyes with 14 kills.
Scates decided to put seldom-used libero Eric Chaghouri into the
match in game three in place of starter Tony Ker.
“Eric’s been playing great in practice,”
Scates said. “He’s been playing better than Tony
lately, just passing a little better. He’s waited a long
time.”
Though UCLA’s passing improved with Chaghouri in, the
Bruins still had other obstacles which they could not overcome.
UCLA was out-blocked 9-3 and committed 17 service errors
throughout the match.
In the third set, the Bruins were able to keep pace with the
Buckeyes until a roof put the Buckeyes up 29-28, eventually giving
them match point.
“They have to learn how to close out,” Scates said.
“Once they start doing that, it starts getting a lot easier.
We have to go over the hump.”
Senior quick hitter David Russell, who is the only current
player who has been to the Outrigger before in 2002, had 8 kills
and hit .636.
The Bruins returned this season with only two starters, but
Scott doesn’t believe the team’s youth or inexperience
as a squad was a factor in their inability to close the Buckeyes
out.
“In the fall we could shut down games,” Scott said.
“It’s just not the same team right now and we’re
trying to find ourselves.”
Looking for redemption, UCLA plays Penn State today at 6 p.m. on
the second day of the Outrigger Invitational.