The Bruins are headed to the semifinals.
No. 2 seed UCLA men’s volleyball (15-5, 14-5 MPSF) defeated No. 7 seed Concordia University Irvine (3-14, 3-13) in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship quarterfinals 3-1 on Thursday in Provo, Utah.
With redshirt senior outside hitter Austin Matautia and redshirt freshman outside hitter/opposite Merrick McHenry unavailable for the match, the Bruins inserted sophomore outside hitter Alex Knight and redshirt sophomore middle blocker Daniel Matheney into the starting lineup. Coach John Speraw had said prior to the match that unnamed players would miss Thursday’s contest because of COVID-19 protocols.
Knight and Matheney both responded by tying career-highs in kills with 15 and 10, respectively.
“Alex had a really, really nice match. That was probably the difference-maker for us,” Speraw said. “Alex hasn’t had an opportunity to really show his offensive prowess like he did tonight, and with (redshirt sophomore opposite/outside hitter Kevin Kobrine) not having his regular match we really needed him, and I think that was the key for this win.”
UCLA struggled with coordination in its new starting lineup, according to Speraw. Trotting out a lineup that has rarely played together this season, the Bruins committed 19 attack errors and 21 service errors, accounting for over 40% of the Eagles’ points.
“This group has not played with each other very much,” Speraw said. “We haven’t even had enough bodies in the gym to even play six-on-six. There was quite a bit of miscommunication and missed connections going on. I think if you look at our hitting numbers overall they were pretty good, yet we still had an uncharacteristic amount of errors.”
UCLA outhit Concordia .425 to .352, as All-MPSF First-Team nominee sophomore outside hitter/opposite Cole Ketrzynski set a career-best with 24 kills. Fellow First-Team nominee redshirt senior outside hitter/setter Sam Kobrine – who has played and started every match this year – notched 59 assists for the Bruins as they had 67 kills to the Eagles’ 47.
Despite consistently outhitting Concordia throughout the match, UCLA found itself facing set point in the third set, with the match even at 1-1. Down 24-23, two timely kills from Ketrzynski and Knight gave the Bruins the lead, before an Eagle attack error ended the set in favor of the blue and gold.
“They just made a couple plays (to end the third set),” Speraw said. “It’s something to build off of. The playoffs are always uncomfortable, especially the first round, and you’ve just got to survive and learn.”
UCLA will face No. 3 seed Pepperdine (12-5, 11-5) in the MPSF semifinals Friday. The winner of the tournament will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship tournament.
Although the team will still be shorthanded against Pepperdine, Ketrzynski said missing some key players for the tournament has motivated the team playing in Provo, Utah.
“This year has been crazy, (and) it’s really brought us all together,” Ketrzynski said. “We know the guys that aren’t here would kill to be here, so I think it motivated us a ton because we want to be able to get to that NCAA (championship) and give those guys a chance to play and compete.”
Friday’s match against the Waves will begin at 3 p.m.
