When Cole Hartke rose from the right side for his 51st swing of the game, the ball flew over the net and crossed the court, narrowly contacting the court’s left-side line.
As a wave of 1,278 white-clad fans erupted – the program’s largest home attendance in eight years – the Bruins immediately looked to their bench and the scorer’s table, throwing up “C” gestures to call for a challenge.
But ultimately, the call confirmed what UCLA had yet to do this season.
No. 1 UCLA men’s volleyball (20-1, 7-1 MPSF) fell in five sets to No. 6 Pepperdine (18-4, 9-0) at Firestone Fieldhouse on Thursday evening in its first loss of the season after three months of competition. The Bruins fell to a Waves squad that remained undefeated in conference play on the back of outside hitter/opposite Hartke’s game-high 23 kills.
Redshirt junior opposite David Decker said even outside of the game, Pepperdine’s arena was hard to play in.
With Firestone Fieldhouse boasting a height of just 42 feet, the Bruins lost several points due to high receptions hitting the ceiling. While the Waves experienced the same obstacles, their home court advantage was evident, with the Waves better anticipating where the ball would drop.
After a Decker serve that libero Jacob Reilly ricocheted into the crowd – which was thought to have been contacted on second touch – the referee’s error call elicited sharp boos from the crowd. After Decker’s following serve missed, the Waves faithful flared in jeering excitement.
And it was that kind of energy that the Bruins had to battle through for five sets.
“It’s pretty difficult getting any momentum because it felt like the points for us felt a lot smaller than the points for them,” Decker said.
But coach John Hawks said much of the loss was chalked up to the Bruins’ own side of the net.
Decker’s aforementioned service error was one of 27 on Thursday – a mark that tied UCLA’s season high previously set on March 6 against No. 4 USC and was notably higher than its season average of 17.9 blunders per game. Although UCLA’s serving has improved since their 2025 campaign, when the squad boasted a 22.2 error-per-game average, the squad seemingly reverted to their erroneous tendencies Thursday.
[Related: UCLA men’s volleyball reflects on effects of service errors on the court]
“You can’t miss 27 serves and have 16 or 17 unforced errors,” Hawks said. “We just gave them too many points at times and maybe didn’t necessarily capitalize on the opportunities that we got.”
Consequently, UCLA struggled to string together consecutive points, making it more difficult to maintain leads and crawl out of deficits. Pepperdine captured the second set 31-29 after UCLA fended off six set points before being defeated on an out-of-bounds swing from senior outside hitter Zach Rama.
The Waves’ offense was carried by Hartke and outside hitter Ryan Barnett, who received an AVCA National Player of the Week selection following his performance against No. 9 BYU on March 28 – during which the redshirt senior notched a career-high 20 kills.
Both pin hitters combined to account for over 75% of Pepperdine’s attacking attempts, with no other teammates seeing more than eight targets. Despite the “predictability” of the Wave offense, the 6-foot-11 Hartke was especially impactful, using his mobility to convert on cross-court and powerful swings.
While Bruin defenders made contact on opposing shots, timing and angles were off just enough for the Waves’ pin hitters to secure points off out-of-bounds deflections. The defensive struggle forced Hawks to make a middle blocker substitution going into the fourth set, bringing in redshirt junior Christophe Hersh for junior Micah Wong Diallo.
Despite the Bruins opening the fifth set with a 6-2 lead off the momentum from a fourth frame victory in which they held the Wave to a .107 hitting percentage – their lowest mark of the night – Hartke’s four kills in the final stanza were integral to the comeback victory, including his score that evened the match at 11 before his subsequent game-winning hit.
“Cole Hartke in his own gym, we expect him to play like that,” Hawks said. “He’s an international-caliber opposite, and he’s got a bright future ahead of him. I loved coaching him this summer but honestly, we just have to do a better job and give ourselves more opportunities against him. There were too many times where the ball hit our hands, and we didn’t run it down.”
With Pepperdine’s star duo paving the way, UCLA was forced to scramble. It totaled 40 digs on the night – the fourth 40-plus performance this season – with Andrew Rowan posting a game-high 14.
Although the senior setter set a new career high, the Waves routinely forced Rowan into taking the first touch, making it more difficult for the Bruins to set up their own attack. Additionally, even when Rowan made his own passes, he was often out-of-system and made longer reads with slower tempos that Waves’ defenders were able to track down.
Nonetheless, Rama said Thursday was an off night, and the Bruins have the potential to bounce back at home with Saturday’s rematch. The Phoenix, Arizona, local’s seven hitting errors were his most since March 3 against the Trojans. Rama also said he missed balls that usually go in by less than a foot.
“We fought,” Rama said. “It was obviously an off night for a lot of us, but it was good heart. Still almost came out of it despite playing like that, so you can’t really complain about a result like that. It’s one loss.”
And after a one-on-one stop by middle blocker Noe Matthey against senior middle blocker Cameron Thorne followed by Rama’s seventh error that went out of bounds, Pepperdine was within reach of its biggest win of the year.
As the whistle blew one last time and the referee signaled to the Waves bench after the challenge review, the Bruins witnessed an opponent’s final celebration for the first time in 2026.
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