Small errors hurt Bruins in game against BYU
Nick Vogel and the Bruins lost to Brigham Young in five sets Saturday night.
By Vidur Malik
Jan. 31, 2010 10:36 p.m.
It was all about the little things Saturday night for the UCLA men’s volleyball team.
In their loss to Brigham Young, small errors in crucial situations hurt the Bruins. Though they had their opportunities, the Bruins (4-5, 3-3 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) lost in five sets, 31-29, 27-30, 28-30, 31-29, 15-11 to the Cougars (6-3, 4-2) Saturday night in Pauley Pavilion.
Sophomore quick hitter Nick Vogel thought the Bruins were unable to put the match away, despite leading late in the fourth set.
“We had an opening at the end of game four to finish off the match, and we let them back in the door, and they closed out game four,” Vogel said.
Then, in the deciding fifth set, BYU’s win was just a few errors and aces away.
“And then game five, only to 15 points, the tiniest little things really make a difference,” Vogel said. “They got on a serving run of a couple points. I missed a serve, we missed a couple serves, and that definitely led them into game five.”
In the fifth set, after an 8-8 tie, BYU went on a five-point run to put themselves in position for the victory.
The Bruins lost a close first set after winning a lengthy first set on Friday.
“They stuck with it a lot more than last night,” Vogel said. “I think they were holding a little bit of a grudge from going that long of a game and us taking it in the end. The same thing pretty much happened in reverse tonight.”
Vogel thought the team was able to shake off that first-set loss.
“We didn’t let it affect us too much. I think it got into their heads last night a little more than it got into our heads tonight. We came back and bounced right back and won the second and third game. It was rough. It would have been nice to have that game as well, but it didn’t affect us that much,” he said.
After winning the next two sets, the Bruins squandered an opportunity to put away the match in the fourth set. The team looked in position to capture another victory, leading 22-18, but BYU tied the set at 25.
After trailing 29-27, the Bruins tied the set again at 29, but senior setter Kevin Ker committed a service error, and BYU recorded a block to capture the fourth set.
The Bruins lost the blocking battle 20-15 on Saturday. Though they did come up short on the block, coach Al Scates thought his team played well in that area.
“They had been blocking better than us in their matches. We made a big jump forward, and even to get 15 blocks is good for us, so that was good. Our blocking is improving.”
In addition, both teams had an up-and-down match in terms of hitting.
“It was a strange match,” Scates said. “There wasn’t any consistency in hitting. A lot of guys had bad hitting performances.”
Even with the overall hitting struggles, both teams had standout performances from their senior outside hitters: UCLA’s Garrett Muagututia fired 27 kills with a .385 clip, and Andrew Stewart led BYU with 22 kills.
“Last night, my team helped me, and so tonight I felt like I needed to step my game up a little bit, because I don’t think I played as well as I could last night,” Muagututia said. “I tried to step it up and see what I could do.”
Lineup shifts
Freshman Jonathan Bridgeman came off the bench for the Bruins on Saturday, playing a considerable amount of time at opposite behind the starter, redshirt sophomore Jack Polales. Bridgeman finished with seven kills and a .429 clip.
Scates used redshirt junior Dylan Bowermaster and redshirt sophomore Jeremy Casebeer at the second outside hitter position Saturday.
“I just needed somebody to hit in that spot a little bit better,” Scates said. “Next time I’ll have to dig deeper, I’m just flipping those two guys. And we have some other players on the bench I need to look at.”
Scates added that he plans to take five outside hitters on the team’s road trip to Hawai’i on Thursday and Friday.
Muagututia is looking forward to the trip but knows the team needs to play the way it did before Saturday’s loss.
“I’m excited to go to Hawai’i. I’ve always loved going to Hawai’i,” Muagututia said. “They’re a good team, so we’ve got to play like we did yesterday and against Northridge in order to beat them, so hopefully we can on the road.”
