It seemed like two different UCLA men’s volleyball teams
showed up during Friday’s 3-2 win over No. 7 UC Santa
Barbara.
The first team played like champions, completely shutting down
the nation’s kills leader in Evan Patak, while hitting .428
and winning the first two games.
“Our plan was to shut down Patak, and in the first two
games we played the game plan pretty good and got a lot of
blocks,” senior Allan Vince said. “Then we became
overconfident and let UCSB back in as they started moving the
offense around.”
But in the tightest moments of the match, it was the Gauchos who
unraveled. UCSB committed four serving errors during the fifth and
final game, enabling the Bruins to rebound for the 30-20, 30-25,
28-30, 22-30, 15-12 victory.
“We had good serving control in Game 5 when it counted,
just like we’ve done each time we’ve gone five games
this season,” said UCLA coach Al Scates, whose team served
flawlessly in the fifth game.
Though the Bruins started and finished the match strong, they
appeared more unfocused in the middle. Allowing the Gauchos to
notch 24 kills in Game 3 while hitting a season-low .031 in Game 4
themselves, the Bruins looked as though they were in danger of
losing their second match in a week.
“(The Gauchos) had all the momentum after winning game
three, and their momentum carried them into game five,”
senior Paul Johnson said. “The crowd was really into it and
we didn’t look like we knew what we were doing. We expected
the match to be easier and let up a little bit, which was a big
mistake.”
A solid serving performance that included six aces triggered the
Gauchos’ comeback.
“They were the hardest-serving team we’ll
see,” Scates said. “It was difficult to control their
servers.”
But with a few motivational words from Scates, the team that
dominated in the first two games returned in Game 5, allowing the
Bruins to pull out a victory.
Led by senior Jonathan Acosta’s 15 kills (.400) and
Johnson’s 13, the Bruins salvaged a .274 match-hitting
percentage.
“We completely lost our momentum after game three, and the
team was in complete disarray in game four,” Scates said.
“The guys got it together for game five, and the team’s
positive attitude turned the match around.”
One of the keys to victory for the Bruins (10-1, 6-1 MPSF) was
containing Patak, who recently broke the NCAA records for kills and
points in a match.
Although Patak had a match-high 26 kills, he also committed 11
errors and only hit .278. Many of his errors were the result of the
strong blocking effort by UCLA, which outblocked UCSB (5-6, 5-3)
16.5 to 10.5.
“We gave Patak a lot of attention, and stuffed him a
lot,” Scates said. “Vince had one of his better
blocking games.”
The top-ranked Bruins don’t necessarily see playing a
five-game match, only their third of the season, as a negative.
“It strengthens us when we are forced to play in all
possible situations,” Vince said.
“It is good to have these tough moments to learn from so
that we’ll be ready for anything in the NCAA
tournament.”