With all the serving difficulties the men’s volleyball
team had at Utah elevation last weekend, a match right off the
Santa Barbara coastline was supposed to be just what the Bruins
needed.
Being right on the beach was as close to sea level as UCLA could
get, but the Gauchos managed to outserve the road-weary Bruins and
came from behind to win 31-33, 27-30, 30-28, 30-27, 15-6.
Wednesday’s match was the Bruins’ sixth consecutive
road game in a seven-match trek.
This is the fourth consecutive match UCLA has lost, a streak
that has not befallen the Bruins since 1999 when they also had a
pair of losses to BYU. The loss Wednesday night also ended
UCLA’s 11-match winning streak over UCSB. The Gauchos’
last victory knocked the Bruins out of the playoffs in 2002.
Returning to a familiar altitude, however, did help the Bruins
““ outside hitter Paul George racked up six aces, and middle
blocked Shaun Nichols added three more. But aces don’t tell
the whole story of the serving game. Although UCLA out-aced UCSB
nine to five, the Gauchos constantly put the Bruins in passing
trouble, thereby limiting UCLA’s offense.
“Our serving was good, but UCSB’s serving was
better,” coach Al Scates said. “It forced us into more
bad passes … (and) our offense became very
predictable.”
In the first two games, however, the Bruins were anything but
predictable. With 22 kills on the night, freshman Garrett
Muagututia fronted the Bruins to .366 and .250 hitting clips in the
first two sets.
“Garrett led us to those first two wins,” Scates
said.
But whether it was because of a lack of focus or heightened play
by the Gauchos, UCLA could not put away UCSB after being up two
games to none. It was a favorable situation the Bruins have not
been in recently, having been swept in their prior three
matches.
“We didn’t adjust blocking to their new guys,”
said senior opposite Steve Klosterman, who added 13 kills.
“We did a good job on (opposite Evan) Patak, but just
couldn’t stop the other guys.”
The key to the match for the Bruins was to stifle the MPSF
Molten Player of the Week, who had 40 kills against Pacific last
Friday. And although Patak fired 31 kills in this five-gamer, the
Bruins limited him to a .200 clip.
“We held Patak down, but their other two hitters broke
loose,” Scates said. “That was the problem.”
Gaucho Aaron Richman added a highly efficient 15 kills in 22
swings with three errors, while Bryan Berman added 12. Scates
disclosed he had trouble scouting Richman and this hurt the team
tonight. “We didn’t see (Richman) play before,”
Scates said. “We received a tape from ‘SC that was so
bad we couldn’t even use it. He hurt us.”
What helped the Bruins to victory in the first two sets
disappeared in the next three.
“Our serves went tentative, our whole play went
tentative,” Klosterman said.
The connection between the middles and the setter also went awry
for the Bruins, aiding the Gauchos in its defense. UCSB picked up
55 digs to UCLA’s 44 on the night.
“Our hitting average dropped dramatically,” Scates
said. “They played fantastic defense. They dug better than we
hit. We made some unforced errors on one-on-one situations. We just
missed on several occasions. One of the main problems was in the
middle. (Our middles) had to just hit the ball easy or tip it and
the balls started getting dug.”
The Bruins have improved over the course of this newly blossomed
season, but they are still looking for that first win of the
conference. And they are hoping they can stop from sliding any
further and rebound against Cal State Northridge on Friday.