New lineup aids UCLA men’s volleyball in victory over Cal State Northridge
Redshirt sophomore quick hitter Weston Dunlap started in the No. 10 Bruins’ sweep of No. 2 Cal State Northridge on
Friday night. Dunlap contributed six block assists while starting in the place of sophomore Nick Vogel.
By Daily Bruin Staff
Jan. 24, 2010 9:57 p.m.
NORTHRIDGE ””mdash; It was a familiar postgame scene for the UCLA men’s volleyball team: the away team erupting in elation while the home team slunk off the court, hanging their heads after being dominated in the serving and blocking categories.
This time, in their first road trip of the conference season, the No. 10 Bruins (3-4, 2-2 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) were the ones celebrating, sweeping the No. 2 Cal State Northridge Matadors (6-1, 3-1) 30-21, 30-24, 30-21 at the Matadome on Friday night.
After studying the stats from the Bruins’ last meeting with the Matadors, UCLA coach Al Scates made some lineup changes, inserting redshirt junior Dylan Bowermaster in for redshirt sophomore Jeremy Casebeer at the second outside hitter slot, and redshirt sophomore Wes Dunlap in for sophomore Nick Vogel to start at quick hitter.
“Bowermaster had a bunch of aces when we played them in November, and I told him to “˜get some jump serves because you’re starting tonight,'” Scates said. “There’s something about his serve that they don’t like.”
Scates’ shift in the lineup shored up both the serving and blocking. Bowermaster finished with five service aces and led the Bruins with 17.5 points on the night, and Dunlap netted six block assists.
Senior captain Garrett Muagututia and sophomore opposite Jack Polales led the bruins with 11 kills each.
The Bruins controlled the match from the beginning, opening the first set with a .385 clip and finished the game hitting .270, while holding the Matadors to .052.
Bowermaster viewed this game as an opportunity for the Bruins to prove that they belong in the conversation with the top teams in the country.
“We wanted to make a statement,” Bowermaster said. “They’re ranked No. 2, and I saw a sign when I was in the locker room that we’re ranked No. 10. We feel like we have players that can match up with anyone in the nation, and tonight was a good night for us.”
The Bruins’ blocking game also improved, something they vowed to focus on after losing to Pepperdine Jan. 15. They out-blocked the Matadors, 14 to eight.
“We worked on it a lot in practice,” Bowermaster said. “It got better against Santa Barbara (Wednesday) night, but we came out here, and obviously, that was the difference.”
Serving was another question mark for the Bruins, especially against the Matadors, who came into the match averaging two service aces a set. UCLA finished with eight aces and held the Matadors to just one.
“I was stupidly obsessed with making too many service errors, and what we really have to do is just go for it and score on the balls you get in,” Scates said. “We had around 80 percent serving tonight. I’ll take 80 percent, serving as hard as we did, anytime. We put more balls in than they did, and this is their gym.”
Senior setter Kevin Ker, who continued to start in place of injured sophomore Kyle Caldwell, was also pleased with what he saw at the service line.
“When you serve tough, you’re going to be able to block a lot easier because you’re getting their team out of their system, so credit all of our guys that went back there and ripped their serves,” Ker said. “It makes it a lot easier to block up there.”
