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Men’s volleyball recovers with win over Lewis

By Vidur Malik

March 3, 2010 9:29 p.m.

For the men’s volleyball team, a step backward in practice resulted in several steps forward come match time.

Coming off of two straight three-set losses, the Bruins delivered a sweep of their own against Lewis Wednesday, winning 30-22, 30-27, 30-25 at Pauley Pavilion. After spending this week’s practice focusing on the fundamentals. the No. 5 Bruins (10-8) took down the No. 15 Flyers (10-4).

“We just overall played very well,” redshirt sophomore Jack Polales said. “Every aspect of our game was solid, and when we put all of those together, we got a quick win in three.”

The Bruins convincingly won the first set, hitting .405 and posting 5.5 blocks. After being down 23-19 in the second, Polales hit one of his team-leading 18 kills, and helped the team comeback from the deficit with his serving. Behind his serving, the Bruins took a 25-23 lead and stayed on top for the rest of the set while forcing the Flyers to use their timeouts.

“That was crucial the way he (Polales) kept serving. They called a timeout and he came back and served tough after being frozen for a couple minutes,” coach Al Scates said.

UCLA dominated both sides of the net, hitting .400 and out-blocked Lewis 14.5 to 4. The improved blocking Wednesday showed the team’s shift in practice paid off. At practice this week, Scates and his assistant coach Brian Rofer let the team hear it when they were playing slow.

“I was standing there, Brian was hitting balls at them, I was yelling at them, “˜they’re late, they’re late,'” Scates said. “I just wanted to give them immediate feedback after every rep without slowing down the practice. That’s why my voice is shot, but it was effective.”

Scates said he felt the team was quicker to the blocks Wednesday.

“The blocking was really good tonight,” Scates said. “We were really getting over the net. I thought (senior outside hitter Garrett Muagututia) was hitting armpits over the net, and (sophomore quick hitter Thomas Amberg) sped up too. He had a few slow ones and I talked to him a little bit, and he really got over.”

Amberg, who finished with one solo block and eight block assists, credited the team’s serving as a reason for the team’s stellar play at the block.

“Our serving is what was the key because we got them out of system and we were able to get two and three blockers up on a lot of their sets and that’s what made the difference,” Amberg said.

The H2 spot also saw improvement Wednesday. In previous matches, Scates had to rotate hitters to get production in the second outside hitter spot, but redshirt sophomore Jeremy Casebeer manned the spot well against Lewis, posting four kills, a pair of solo blocks and a pair of block assists. Scates said Casebeer contributed in several areas.

“He was passing real well, and he was blocking, he was getting over quick, had some blocks,” Scates said. “Sometimes I leave Garrett in when he’s not hitting well either if he’s doing all the other stuff, and that’s what Jeremy was doing tonight.”

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