After two and a half hours of grueling volleyball, USC sophomore outside hitter Murphy Troy spiked the ball wide, giving the Bruins a point, the fifth set and the match. The UCLA student section stormed the court at Pauley Pavilion and celebrated the Bruins’ thrilling victory.
At least it seemed that way.
The officials conferred and ruled the ball hit a UCLA player’s hand on its way out, and the point went to USC, tying the fifth set at 14.
“The call that was most suspect,” senior outside hitter Sean O’Malley said. “I can’t believe they reversed that (call).”
After the Bruins and Trojans exchanged a few deuce points, junior outside hitter Garrett Muagututia, who scored four of UCLA’s final six points, served an ace to give the No. 9 Bruins (13-14, 9-11 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) a 19-17 fifth-set victory and the match against No. 4 USC (16-9, 12-8). The final scores of the sets were 33-31, 27-30, 22-30, 32-30, 19-17.
After the weekend’s matches, UCLA stands in eighth place in the conference, half a match behind of Long Beach State and one and a half matches ahead of UC San Diego. Both teams, however, own the potential tiebreaker over the Bruins.
Regardless of conference standings, the Bruins were focused on defeating the Trojans. Coach Al Scates made a game-time decision to start all five Bruin seniors in order to give them adequate playing time in their final home match.
UCLA fed off the seniors’ high energy, racing to a 33-31 first-set victory.
Senior Matt Wade, usually a setter, led the offense by starting the night at outside hitter. In his first career start at outside hitter, Wade made eight kills on 11 attempts and also made three crucial digs.
“(Matt) carried us the first two (sets),” Scates said. “Eventually I knew I’d go back to the old lineup. … We used the real lineup in the fourth and fifth (sets).”
After the first set, the Bruins’ energy seemed to dwindle, leading to losses in the next two sets.
Muagututia played off the bench and was missing for the Bruins most of the first three sets.
“This was a totally new experience for (Garrett),” Scates said. “He reacted very well when he came in cold.”
Muagututia played the role of head cheerleader and was active on the bench at the beginning of the match. After entering the match, he was equally active on the floor.
Muagututia, a .238 hitter on the season, finished the match with 17 kills and only three hitting errors. Muagututia also made two critical aces, four sets, two blocks and three digs to go along with his explosive performance to close out the match.
“Garrett still maintained his energy and he put some crucial balls away,” O’Malley said.
With the Senior Night celebration and crosstown bragging rights at stake, the Bruins showed tremendous energy and poise, despite numerous play reversals and stoppages by the officials.
“The guys on the court did a great job of staying focused and not overreacting and getting ready for the next play,” Wade said. “The guys off the court did a really good job; they were yelling at the refs, trying to get (the calls) our way.”
Scates added that the Bruins were especially motivated to beat USC this time because the team was facing a potential four-match losing streak to the Trojans.
“I told the team … in ’80 and ’81 we lost four in a row to (USC),” Scates said. “I never wanted it to happen again. I said, “˜We’ve lost three, so we’re going to win tonight.'”