BRIDGET O’BRIEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Sophomore
outside hitter Matt Komer prepares to send the
ball over the outstreched hands of his USC opponent.
UCLA<//b> d. USC 27-30, 30-24, 30-26,
30-19
By Diamond Leung
Daily Bruin Contributor
Beating USC is always fun for UCLA. Dominating the Trojans is
downright pleasurable.
That’s exactly what the No. 2 Bruin men’s volleyball
team (6-3, 2-1 MPSF) did to the No. 8 Trojans (3-3, 3-3) Wednesday
night, defeating them 27-30, 30-24, 30-26, 30-19 at Pauley
Pavilion.
“It always feels good to beat ‘SC,” UCLA head
coach Al Scates said. “We lost to them last year here, and
now we’ve reestablished that this is our house.”
The win didn’t look like it would come easy at first.
After the Bruins scored four straight points off the serve of
senior middle blocker Adam Naeve, the Trojans rallied to take the
game behind six kills from senior outside hitter Eli Fairfield.
“The first game was a bit sloppy, but then we got our
rhythm going, and we just carried it on through,” junior
outside hitter Matt Komer said.
In the second game, the Bruins started to pick up their
blocking. They stuffed junior opposite hitter Brook Billings twice
to help build a 21-11 lead. The Trojans would come back to tie the
score at 23 off bad passing and hitting errors by the Bruins, but
after that it was all UCLA.
Billings was again stuffed twice, this time by Naeve and
sophomore setter Rich Nelson, who combined for a third straight
block to propel the Bruins to a 30-24 win in game two.
“Our blocking is improving,” Scates said.
“When the block is in their face, then the hitting errors
come because they don’t like getting blocked.”
Billings should know. Stopping the dangerous All-American was
the key to winning the match for UCLA. He finished with 13 kills,
but that statistic doesn’t tell of his struggles.
While Billings was hounded by the Bruin fans from the sidelines,
on the court his attacks were being blocked back into his face. He
hit at a low -.067 clip on the night.
“We just took away his tendencies. He just didn’t
have it in him,” Komer said.
“It just happened that he didn’t have a good match
and never got into it,” freshman outside hitter Jonathan
Acosta said.
The rest of the Trojans didn’t fare that much better
against UCLA’s blocking, hitting a combined .179.
“We just played well, and they couldn’t do
anything,” Acosta said.
Acosta, who returned from a stomach pull to start the match,
provided the Bruins with some good play.
“He looked pretty good,” Scates said.
“He’s going to get a lot better as the season
progresses.”
Scates later replaced Acosta in the third game with sophomore
Cameron Mount, who had been struggling with his hitting the last
few matches. But not tonight. Mount came through, hitting .538 and
notching eight kills including the kill to close out game
three.
UCLA dominated game four. The Bruins continued to pressure
Billings into hitting errors, and cruised to a 30-19 win to end the
match. It was a complete win for the Bruins. They out-hit,
out-blocked, and out-dug the Trojans.
Junior opposite hitter Ian Burnham led the Bruins with a
match-high 18 kills to go along with five digs and two aces.
“(The win) really helps us,” Acosta said.
“Everything’s coming together.”
Unfortunately for the Trojans, they found that out the hard
way.