The Bruins began their second road trip of the year with a win.
No. 7 UCLA men’s volleyball (6-2) defeated UC San Diego (3-5) by a score of 3-1 on Friday in La Jolla, California, in the teams’ second matchup of the season.
Redshirt junior opposite Brandon Rattray aided the Bruins’ offense in his return to his San Diego roots by posting a career-high 21 kills, while only committing two attacking errors. Rattray also hit for .576, despite entering Friday’s match with a mark of .282 through the first seven matches of the season.
Rattray said he was able to minimize errors by tweaking his offensive approach in Friday’s match.
“Everyone says that I only have one speed, and that’s ‘hit the ball as hard as possible,’ and it’s been true for the past couple of matches,” Rattray said. “Tonight, I kinda changed the game plan, as opposed to detonating every single ball, more placing the ball where I want it to be and putting it in the spots where they weren’t.”
Redshirt junior middle blocker Jonah Kay, another San Diego native, entered play for the first time in his career midway through the third set. Senior setter Micah Ma’a said that while Kay was limited on the stat sheet, his presence was crucial for the Bruins on the road.
“When you get people in there that are from (San Diego), you get the crowd on your side a little bit,” Ma’a said. “We were in a hostile environment, and because of (Kay) I think that the Bruin fans that were there got a lot more excited, and that changes the momentum lightning quick.”
The first set of the match was the only one that the Bruins dropped.
The two teams were knotted up at 10-9 in favor of UCSD, but a 5-1 run by the Tritons led to an eventual 25-20 victory in the first set.
UCSD’s outside hitter Wyatt Harrison and middle blocker Vlad Pesic – who combined for a total of three kills when UCSD traveled to UCLA earlier this year – helped the Tritons snatch the early lead by tallying five and three kills in the first set, respectively.
UCLA coach John Speraw chose to make a substitution following the first set loss, removing redshirt junior middle blocker Matt Younggren for sophomore middle blocker Grant Maleski.
“I usually don’t sub quite that quickly, but obviously we lost that set and we needed to pick things up,” Speraw said. “(Maleski) came in, and I thought he did a decent job.”
The Bruins won the next two sets by scores of 25-17 and 25-15 following the substitution. The move also played in UCLA’s favor with UCSD leading 21-19 in the fourth set, with junior outside hitter Austin Matautia receiving the serve and passing the ball to Ma’a.
Ma’a – with the team’s only other starting senior, outside hitter Dylan Missry, to his front and its highest scorer, Rattray, to his back – opted to set the ball to Maleski for the sophomore’s third and final kill of the night.
The pass to Maleski set in motion a 6-2 Bruin run that would enable UCLA to take the fourth set and the match.
Ma’a said that his decision to go to Maleski in that situation was a sign UCLA has confidence all of its players can produce in any given moment.
“It’s important to have trust in your guys,” Ma’a said. “It doesn’t really matter what the score is, if we think that they have the best opportunity to score, then we’re willing to go to anyone on the team.”
The Bruins will travel to Illinois to play No. 5 Loyola Chicago and No. 9 Lewis on Thursday and Friday, respectively.