UCSD sweeps men’s volleyball in upset

The UCLA men’s volleyball team fell to UC San Diego on Friday in what was more than just a loss. The sweep, an unexpected result against a beatable team, left the Bruins scratching their heads and wondering how much they can pull things together before the looming playoffs.

Momentum has shifted against the No. 5 UCLA team (15-11, 8-10 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation). Two consecutive losses have now erased much of the confidence remaining from a seven-game winning streak.

No. 12 UC San Diego (9-17, 5-14) came into the John Wooden Center on Friday as a team sitting near the bottom of the conference. The Bruins had swept them just six days ago.

The Tritons wasted no time in asserting control over the match. An ace capped off a 7-4 run, and from there they had the Bruins in a headlock. UCLA found an 18-17 lead, one of its few in the match, but the team’s hitting struggles continued, and San Diego took the first set, 25-21.

“They knew what our tendencies were to hit, so they forced us to take shots we were uncomfortable with,” redshirt junior quick hitter Phil Darin said.

The team only hit .172 in the set, a number that would only get worse.

UCLA allowed another 7-4 deficit in the second set. No single Triton player single-handedly stood out; freshman outside hitter Nick Iorfino led San Diego but only with 11 kills. However, the Bruins struggled time and time again, hitting for a .031 clip.

It was enough to let the second set slip away.

“We weren’t challenging the block,” coach Al Scates said. “We were looking for a perfect shot instead of getting a piece of the block, which is why we were having problems.”

In the third set, the Bruins clawed their way out of a few holes and stayed on pace with the Tritons. Freshman outside hitter Gonzalo Quiroga made some big plays at critical points in the set, like he has during much of the season. His team was poised to force a fourth set, down 22-21. Yet UC San Diego took three of the next four points to seal the upset.

The Bruins ended up hitting only .105 through the match, while the Tritons totaled .329. UCLA was out-blocked by 3.5 and had more than twice as many attack errors.

UCLA will still likely make the playoffs, but the loss made it more probable that they will have to face a dominant USC team in the opening round.

“We should beat (UC San Diego) every time we play them, but there’s really no excuse,” redshirt junior outside hitter Jeremy Casebeer said.

“We couldn’t stop their middles at all. It was on us.”