Long Beach State’s men’s volleyball team was dripping with confidence entering Wednesday’s match against UCLA. Two weeks earlier, it handed UCLA its first loss in conference play and ended its 10-match winning streak. Twenty minutes into Wednesday’s game, however, the 49ers’ poise was gone, their cheers from the sideline replaced with stony silence. That’s what a seven-point opening-set loss and a crowd of hecklers will do to you.
No. 1 UCLA (16-2, 10-1 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) defeated No. 8 Long Beach State (8-8, 4-7) 3-0, ending a streak of four straight five-set matches between these teams.
“It was really, really relieving to roll over this team because they’re our biggest challenge of the year to date, beside UC Irvine,” senior quick hitter Thomas Amberg said. “So for us to come back and beat them, it was more than just a game.”
The two teams opened the match by trading points, but a 5-0 Bruin run gave UCLA the lead. From there, it didn’t look back, winning 25-18.
“When we get rolling … it’s really hard for a team to stop that,” redshirt senior quick hitter Weston Dunlap said. “When our block is there and everyone’s really excited, we get our adrenaline pumping, and that just goes for (a) long streak. They really need to do more timeouts and wipe the floor more, because that’s the only way they’re going to stop our momentum.”
The Bruins couldn’t sustain the momentum throughout the next two sets, allowing the 49ers to stay close. However, UCLA had late runs to win 25-20 and 25-21.
“I think that the second game and the third game were a little closer than we wanted, but we’re in such a competitive league and we have so many things to work on ourselves, that any team can be good any given day,” said senior opposite Nick Vogel.
“Just because we stuck with them neck-and-neck for a while doesn’t necessarily mean that we were slacking off and they were playing a lot better. We maintained a good level of energy tonight and made sure that we took care of business.”
UCLA kept the lead thanks partly to its serving.
“We were spraying the ball all over the place,” coach Al Scates said. “We were serving well. … I mean, we were forcing a lot of bad passes.”
But it was in its defense, where it struggled in its last match against Long Beach State, that UCLA really stood out, holding its opponent to just a .141 hitting percentage.
“Last time we played them, we had a big problem with defense and easy balls and tips going down,” Vogel said. “And just the fact that we have every aspect of our defensive game going now; we’re serving well, we’re blocking well, and now we’re digging well also.”
The 49ers may have entered the match confident, but they were quickly trumped by the Bruins’ own self-assuredness.
“We knew they weren’t that good of a team,” Dunlap said. “We knew they weren’t deserving of a five-game match with us and so we really focused. … We knew if we came out and played our game, there was no way that they could touch us, so that’s what happened.”