Senior setter Kyle Caldwell placed his outstretched arms on top his head and let out a gasp of breath for a quick rest in between points.
For Caldwell and the UCLA team, this was one of the few rests the team took all night as they never let up in a sweep of Pepperdine on Friday.
UCLA entered the match following its first consecutive losses of the year, but it had no intentions on continuing the trend.
“(Losing those games) was a real eye-opener for us. A lot of (us) seniors got together and said we’re not going out like this again. We need to turn it around,” Caldwell said.
“We need to make sure we start peaking towards the end of the year, (so) we ramped it up yesterday in practice and made sure we were ready for this game.”
The Bruins’ newfound energy was evident from the get-go.
During warm-ups, few UCLA players broke a smile or reverted to their usual relaxed pregame demeanor. Instead, many had undertaken a stern facial expression driven by a rekindled focus.
The Bruins’ change in attitude translated to a changed team on the court.
UCLA served tougher and attacked more efficiently, both of which it lacked in the losses.
Senior quick hitter Thomas Amberg provided the Bruins with the biggest serving lift. Amberg made his best baseball fastball pitch impersonation as he regularly pelted serves over the net on his way to a season-high four aces.
“My jump wasn’t as good earlier, but now I’m finally feeling fresh, ready to go, and my shoulder is feeling good. So I was able to rip and crush and get some aces,” Amberg said.
Pepperdine’s servers also brought the heat from the service line.
For UCLA, this meant confronting its main issue of inconsistent digging off serves that had plagued it in its last two losses.
Coach Al Scates inserted redshirt freshman outside hitter Kene Izuchukwu into the starting lineup in an attempt to buck this trend.
“I did this because against the tough serving teams “¦ sometimes, we need four receivers and he’s a receiver,” Scates said. “For (his) first start, it was pretty good, but he can get better.”
With Izuchukwu in the starting lineup for the first time, the Bruins improved on handling the opposition’s serves. The newcomer didn’t stop contributing there, though.
At set point in the second set, the 6-foot Izuchukwu rose up for a resounding solo block on Pepperdine’s leading hitter to give UCLA the set.
Izuchukwu’s new role capped off a night full of change for the Bruins.