Two hours and 15 minutes into the UCLA men’s volleyball team’s postseason tournament, it was already over.
At Santa Barbara on Saturday night in front of a rowdy Gaucho crowd of 1,157, the Bruins were eliminated from all postseason contention, losing to fifth-ranked UC Santa Barbara in four games, 30-17, 37-35, 27-30 and 30-27.
For the volleyball team, this wasn’t the way they planned on ending the season.
“I looked forward to the teams we were going to be playing,” captain and departing senior Paul George said. “I said, “˜OK, we can get by Santa Barbara, we will get by Pepperdine; if we go to Ohio State, we’re going to win the whole thing.’ … I just wanted everyone to put their heart and soul into the match and if we’re going to lose, let’s go down fighting and go down swinging. Every guy on our team really poured it out tonight and we just got outplayed.”
UCSB began its lead over UCLA from game one. They took a strong lead and by the middle of the first game, coach Al Scates was forced to cut his losses and rest his first team on the bench in preparation for game two.
“That game was totally out of hand,” Scates said. “I got all the starters out; might as well rest them because once the game got to a certain point … you can’t win, it’s impossible to win.”
Although the Gauchos took game one easily, 30-17, the Bruins weren’t going to let them win so easily in game two. Both sides went back and forth all the way to 35 points. Although it seemed like the game would never end, the Gauchos were able to push for two extra points and take game two.
Down 0-2, the Bruins were in a tough situation but refused to let up.
They came back in game three, showing they weren’t going to be swept and could take the match to five games. Only a little while ago, down 0-2 to UC Irvine, UCLA was able to come back three games in a row to take the match and knew they could do the same again. Game three showed promise and hope, as they defeated Santa Barbara 30-27 and were poised to win another game to take the match to five.
But it wasn’t going to happen.
UCSB, playing the best it has played against the Bruins in a long time, was determined to end the match and did so, winning in game four, 30-27, to end the match and UCLA’s season.
In game four, the Bruins committed 10 service errors to complete a horrific 31 total service errors on the match.
“In the last game, we were outhitting them by 100 points or so, and we made 10 service errors in 27 attempts,” Scates said. “Every time we made an error, they got a point. … We were poised to win in five, but technically you have to serve hard and get the ball in.”
But despite the errors made by the Bruins, it came down to the Gauchos simply playing better volleyball. Although senior Steve Klosterman had 28 kills while freshman Garrett Muagututia added 18, UCSB senior Evan Patak was uncontainable. He put up 24 kills and showed everybody why he’s the All-American who leads the nation in kills per game.
“He definitely played the best he’s ever played against us in four years,” Klosterman said. “This night he was pretty dominant, we didn’t have an answer really for him … the whole team on their side just played with more intensity and a different level than they’ve played all year. They were digging every ball, jumping higher than I’ve ever seen them hit, and they played well ““ you have to give credit to them.”