The men’s volleyball team can finally let out a sigh of
relief. With mounting pressure on their backs to get win No. 2 of
the conference season, the Bruins were finally able to ease their
anxiety Wednesday night.
No. 8 UCLA (4-6, 2-5 MPSF) defeated visiting team No. 9
Hawai’i (2-5, 2-3) in four games 30-25, 33-31, 28-30, 31-29
in front of a raucous crowd of 776.
As with other matches this season, coach Al Scates mixed and
matched until he found the right personnel to get the job done.
This included starting opposite Sean O’Malley and setter
Kevin Ker, both of whom were given the starting nod for the first
time this season.
The arrangement could not have paid off better for the Bruins
““ O’Malley pounded nine kills and two aces in the first
two sets alone.
“(O’Malley) started out real hot,” Scates
said. “He’s probably not in very good shape (after just
getting his cast removed) and we probably left him in too long. But
he hit a lot of nice balls.”
UCLA was able to quash the Warriors’ top returnee, Lauri
Hakala. The Bruins held him to just one kill in Game 1.
However, the Warrior middle blockers, Dio Dante and Kyle
Klinger, were blocking well and hitting on all cylinders, with
every swing terminating in a kill. However, the Bruins were able to
outplay Hawai’i in all other aspects, especially serving.
By Game 2, however, the Warriors were giving the Bruins a run
for their money, pushing the set to overtime. The Warrior block was
too much in the way for the UCLA hitters: It amassed 7.5 roofs in
the one game. And although the Bruins squeaked out a win, the
Warriors were building momentum.
After Hawai’i broke out to an eight-point 14-6 lead in the
third set, it was clear the Bruin starting lineup was tiring.
Scates looked down his bench once again for a needed spark, and it
came in the form of Brett Perrine.
“At the beginning of Game 3 we were just getting
clobbered,” Scates said. “We just needed some new faces
in there.”
Perrine, who has been switching off with Steve Klosterman in the
middle and on the outside, replaced Klosterman in the middle and
rattled off seven errorless kills, hitting .700.
“I just got in there and did my best,” Perrine said.
“Passing was good, setting was good, and I was able to put
the ball down.”
“Perrine looked really good in the middle,” Scates
said. “I suited him up as the fourth quick hitter. I was real
happy with him; he really looked sharp.”
With the Bruins getting back into a groove, they were ready to
recover from the Game 3 loss. They wanted to be sure this match
would not slip away like so many others had. Senior captain Paul
George rallied his troops and yelled, “We’re winning
this game right now.” His teammates responded by jumping out
to a 19-13 lead.
But the Warriors always put up a fight against their traditional
rival, and battled back to tie the match at 24 and again at 29.
Yet, unlike in games past, the Bruins quelled this surging tide and
held out to win Game 4 on a Jamie Diefenbach kill.
Diefenbach only put down four balls on the night, but none were
more important than this kill that ricocheted off the 10-foot line
for the win.
“(The last kill) felt great just because that was (win)
No. 2 in the league,” Diefenbach said. “It felt good
when we were stretching, but now we’ve got to think about
(Friday).”