UCLA men’s volleyball falls to UC Santa Barbara for the third time this season
Coach Al Scates and the Bruins dropped another match to UC Santa Barbara, their third of the season.
MEN’S VOLLEYBALL
UC Santa Barbara 3
UCLA 1
By Jacob Ruffman
Feb. 14, 2011 3:06 a.m.
Throughout the season, the UC Santa Barbara men’s volleyball team has been UCLA’s Kryptonite.
After playing the Gauchos for the third time this season ““ and the second time in the week ““ the Bruins found themselves still winless against the Gauchos after a 3-1 loss in Santa Barbara. The loss placed the Bruins alone in last place in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.
“They are better than us right now. … They are getting more kills and more digs, which adds up to us losing,” coach Al Scates said.
The first set did not indicate anything close to a rough night for the No. 5 Bruins (7-7, 2-6 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation), as they held the No. 7 Gauchos (8-5, 6-4) to a lowly 0.120 hitting percentage, which was over 200 points below their average, in a 25-23 win.
UCLA was led by freshman outside hitter Gonzalo Quiroga, who had five of his seven kills in the first, while redshirt junior quick hitter Weston Dunlap, who had the final kill of the set, finished with 12 on the night.
“We ended up taking away a lot of their tendencies in the first game and that was a big part as to why we won that set,” junior quick hitter Thomas Amberg said.
From that point on, UCSB was in control. The Gauchos started off the second set with eight consecutive points and never let the lead drop below six before winning the set, 25-18.
Passing and service errors doomed the Bruins in the third set, as the Gauchos allowed the Bruins to lead only once at 5-4. UCLA had six service errors in the set and a total of 20 in the match.
“Our passing was really the main cause of us losing tonight,” Scates said.
“We weren’t making a lot of errors but we just weren’t doing a good job of incorporating our quick hitters. We were out of system the whole time.”
The final set was another battle, but UCSB, behind the stellar play of senior outside hitter Jeff Menzel, stretched an 18-17 lead to 22-17 before Menzel slammed home the final point to give the Gauchos a 25-20 win and the match. Menzel led the Gauchos with 18 kills in the match.
UCLA does not have to face UCSB again during the regular season, but there’s no question that the Bruins want one more shot.
“Santa Barbara is a very beatable team,” freshman outside hitter Robart Page said. “It’s frustrating to see us lose to them three times because we showed in that first set that we can beat them and we can play with them.
I hope we play them again ““ I want to beat them really badly.”
