A glitch in the Pauley Pavilion scoreboard rendered the word
“Hawai’i” unreadable during Saturday
night’s quarterfinal match.
UCLA, on the other hand, had a glitch-free evening, advancing to
the semifinals of the MPSF men’s volleyball playoffs with a
3-0 win (30-24, 30-24, 30-28) over the Warriors in front of 1,458
fans.
The victory kept the third-seeded Bruins’ NCAA Tournament
hopes alive. If UCLA (24-5, 17-5) can defeat No. 2 Long Beach State
in the conference semifinals Thursday in Provo, Utah, it will
likely earn a bid to the four-team NCAA Tournament the following
week.
“We are flowing well right now,” senior quick hitter
Chris Peña said. “But different altitude is a whole
different story. So we have to bring it up there when we go to
Provo next week.”
The Bruins came into the match with sixth-seeded Hawaii (17-9,
13-9) looking to limit the Warriors attack, and the strategy
worked. UCLA servers keyed on average Warrior passers Pedro Azenha
and Delano Thomas, forcing them to scramble to keep balls
alive.
Though they only tallied three aces, UCLA’s ferocious jump
serving resulted in many easy points.
“Hawai’i’s team is more of an offensive
team,” junior outside hitter Jonathan Acosta said.
“They don’t receive as well as other teams in the
country. If you can get them in trouble with your serve,
that’s where you can start making points.”
The Bruins pulled away late in each of the first two games, but
they were unable to shake the Warriors in game three.
Hawaii closed to within one point at 28-27, but a serving foot
fault by Dionisio Dante and a hitting error destroyed the
Warriors’ momentum and gave UCLA the victory.
Junior quick hitter Paul Johnson led the squad’s serving
attack with two aces. While the Bruins’ tough serving did not
fully show up in the box score ““ UCLA had 14 service errors
to its three aces ““ the effect of the Bruins’ serving
was apparent.
“We spend so much time practicing (jump serving) everyday,
it’s unbelievable,” UCLA coach Al Scates said.
“We are not a dominant blocking team so we have to serve
well. We have to depend on our serve, so we have to take a gamble
and serve (aggressively).”
UCLA, led by Peña’s 11 kills, out-hit Hawai’i
.314 to .185.
Freshman Steve Klosterman also had 11 kills, and played well
coming off the bench in the first game in place of starting senior
opposite Marcin Jagoda, who did not hit well. Klosterman has
suffered from shoulder tendonitis as of late, and did not play in
UCLA’s last regular season match ““ a victory over UC
Santa Barbara on April 17.
Recently, Klosterman has struggled early in matches, but his
performance Saturday was a return to form.
“Klosterman hasn’t had many good first games for us
this year, so that was a breakthrough for him,” Scates
said.
The Bruins seemed to breeze through the playoff match, exuding
confidence on their home court.
“We knew we could beat them with a serving game if we
brought it,” Peña said, “and we knew we could beat
them if we neutralized their servers, and Delano and Azenha are
good servers, and if you neutralize those guys they fall apart. It
was a real simple game plan.”
And it was executed without a glitch.