It took eight matches, but junior Dennis Gonzalez finally
regained his position as the starting setter of the UCLA
men’s volleyball team.
Against BYU on Saturday, Gonzalez made his first start of the
year after losing the position to freshman Gaby Acevedo in the
fall.
“Dennis has been getting better every day in practice and
was performing well in the limited chances he got to play,”
UCLA coach Al Scates said. “I gave him a chance to start and
he played very well, so as of right now I plan on starting him in
Wednesday’s match.”
Before this past weekend, Gonzalez had recorded a total of only
23 assists in six games, but in the two matches against BYU,
Gonzalez had 75 assists while playing in all seven games.
“On Saturday, I played the best I had all year,”
Gonzalez said. “Everything just came together. I have been
working hard and improving each day in practice, but I also did
well because I just became more determined to be better.”
Gonzalez may only be the first of several players to move up
into the starting lineup.
“The entire second team is getting better,” Scates
said. “The competition is really close between the starters
and the replacements. I don’t even think of the second team
as team No. 2 anymore. They’re team 1B.”
ALTITUDE ADJUSTMENTS: After a dismal serving effort on Friday,
the Bruins stepped up on Saturday and had one of their best serving
performances of the year. The altitude at BYU, located in Provo,
Utah, is the highest of any of the MPSF schools, and the volleyball
tends to travel three feet farther on serves, making the transition
difficult for visiting teams.
“There were a lot of service errors in the first match
because of the high altitude,” Scates said. “The noisy
crowd also made it very tough to serve well. When it’s so
loud, it’s easier for the players to revert back to serving
like they would at sea level.”
Not wanting to repeat the 22 service errors the team hit in
Friday’s loss, UCLA utilized seniors Jonathan Acosta, Kris
Kraushaar and Allan Vince as float servers in Saturday’s
match.
The result was an obvious improvement, as the Bruins served
seven aces and only 10 errors.
“The way we served was different in the second match, and
clearly it was much better,” Kraushaar said. “We were
more comfortable with the high altitude, and once we started
winning, the crowd got much quieter, which also made it easier to
serve.”
STILL ON TOP: With their split against the No. 3 Cougars, the
Bruins maintained their position atop the MPSF rankings.
If UCLA had lost both games, the Bruins would have likely had to
travel to Provo again for the MPSF playoffs in the beginning of
May, a trip UCLA definitely does not want to make.
“With 6,000 screaming fans, Brigham Young has a tremendous
home-court advantage,” Scates said. “They are a much
easier team to beat if they are not at home.”