Live Like Braun.
Players and coaches on both sides of the net donned shirts with this phrase to honor the late Braun Levi, a star tennis player and manager of the boys’ volleyball team at Loyola High School, who was killed after being struck by an alleged drunk driver on May 4, 2025.
[Related: ‘Live Like Braun’: UCLA, USC men’s volleyball unite in tribute to Braun Levi]
“Seeing how much (Levi) impacted others is really important,” said coach John Hawks. “I think that’s part of our journey as a team of college athletes.”
And in a match where the crosstown rivalry was set aside to remind everyone to lead with kindness and compassion in the way Braun did, No. 1 UCLA men’s volleyball (16-0, 5-0 MPSF) defeated No. 5 USC (8-3, 1-2) in four sets on Friday night at Pauley Pavilion, capturing back-to-back victories against the Trojans – after beating them in five Tuesday at the Galen Center. The Bruins tied the record for the best start to a season in program history, previously set in 1998, with the Friday victory.
[Related: ‘When it gets tough, we stay in’: Men’s volleyball downs USC in 5-set road win]
Sophomore outside hitter Sean Kelly, who also attended Loyola High School and was close friends with Levi, helped fuel a strong offensive start for the Bruins. Posting four kills in the first set and 17 total en route to his sixth-straight double-digit kill outing, he established his connection with senior setter Andrew Rowan early.
“Rowan was moving me around well,” Kelly said. “He’s getting me open, and then I’m able to find space. It felt really good.”
Rowan, who currently leads both the MPSF and the country in assists per set, assisted all of Kelly’s kills in the first set. With Kelly playing an elevated role in the back row this season, Rowan has provided him with more opportunities for bics and pipes, while also forcing the Manhattan Beach, California, local to hone his passing skills. The sophomore has increased his digs-per-game tally from 2.79 to 4.81 this season.
After UCLA won the first set 25-22, the 1976 and 2006 national championship teams took the floor and were honored for their achievements on a night that proved to be historic for the current squad.
And while the Trojans managed to take the second set, the Bruins’ defensive front held firm for the remainder of the match. Redshirt junior opposite David Decker, who contributed 12 kills of his own, also notched a career-high 10 digs Friday night. The Winston-Salem, North Carolina, local has posted three-plus digs in his last five games, while also averaging 3.8 blocks across that same stretch.
“I’m very happy about that,” Decker said when asked about his passing. “In order to beat them, we just need to get a couple more digs. I tried to put a lot of focus on that in practice this week.”
And the results showed.
The Bruins limited outside hitter Dillon Klein – another Loyola alumnus – to 16 kills after he posted 25 Tuesday night. Klein also had eight attacking errors and recorded a .205 hitting percentage, his lowest clip of the season. The Bruin rotation of middle blockers senior Cameron Thorne and junior Micah Wong Diallo consistently trapped Klein into tight angles, forcing the AVCA First Team All-American to attempt several cross-court swings that either hit the net or went out of bounds.
And these errors plagued the Trojans, who posted seven attacking errors in the third set compared to just eight kills.
“We got extra reps against them (USC) on Tuesday,” Decker said. “Coming in today, we had a bit of a better feel about how they were going to play. I felt like we were more prepared.”
Once the Bruins had applied this defensive pressure, they delivered the knockout punch in the final two sets.
Thorne delivered two straight kills to build the UCLA lead early in the third set. He has posted a .531 hitting percentage this season, up from .521 in 2025.
After a kill from Diallo, which came off a no-look assist from Rowan, the Bruins had a 19-11 lead in the third set, and the packed crowd at Pauley Pavilion erupted. And the home crowd may have been the difference maker between Friday night’s dominant victory and Tuesday’s close five-set match
“We’ve got 5,000 people rooting for us, we’ve got the championship team from 1976 and the championship team from 2006,” Hawks said. “There are a lot of really good things to play for here.”
And that energy from the Bruin faithful did not dwindle until the final whistle. A seven-kill fourth set from senior outside hitter Zach Rama gave UCLA the 25-19 set victory and its 13th win in the past 15 matchups against its crosstown opponent.
The Bruins will travel to Hawai‘i for three matches as part of the Outrigger Invitational, which will span March 12 to March 14. UCLA will face Lewis to open its Aloha State outing.
“We’re not worried about Hawai‘i,” said Hawks. “Let’s travel there, get there safely and be healthy. We’re a resilient group and a group that has been tested already.”
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