Men’s volleyball beats top-ranked BYU, splits weekend series on the road

The Bruins split a pair of matches this weekend with the No. 1 team in the nation.

On Thursday night in Provo, Utah, No. 8 UCLA men’s volleyball (2-1) took down No. 1 BYU (1-1) in a 3-1 victory with scores of 25-22, 25-21, 15-25, 25-22, the first time since 2009 that the Bruins defeated the Cougars on their home grounds.

UCLA held BYU to a hitting percentage of .168 for the match. The Bruins claimed the first two sets while BYU took the third, but ultimately, UCLA finished the fourth set with a victory.

Freshman outside hitter Ethan Champlin led the team with 11 kills, redshirt freshman opposite hitter Kyle Vom Steeg chipped in nine kills of his own and redshirt senior outside hitter Austin Matautia had eight kills with a .400 hitting percentage. Redshirt senior outside hitter/setter Sam Kobrine also paced the team with 28 assists.

“Thursday was an epic game with a lot of energy and a lot of great plays,” said redshirt junior libero/outside hitter Cole Pender. “We came out with a lot of energy.”

Saturday afternoon’s rematch saw a different outcome as it resulted in the Bruins’ first loss of the season after the Cougars swept the match 3-0 with final scores of 25-16, 25-21, 25-17. UCLA’s lead was short-lived as it had a .034 hitting percentage paired with four service errors in the first set, leading to a comfortable BYU win.

In the second set, UCLA hit .286 but made several attack and service errors. BYU swept, taking the second and third sets with an overall hitting percentage of .406, an improvement from its performance in the last match, while the road side hit .152 with 19 attack errors and 15 service errors.

Coach John Speraw said his team didn’t capitalize on a lot of its transition opportunities and needed to work on its offense.

“I think (BYU) served and set better. (Opposite hitter Gabi Garcia Fernandez) had a great match, we couldn’t stop him,” Speraw said. “I think they’re a very good volleyball team that’s experienced, and tonight, that showed. Tonight we float-served a lot of errors, and that shouldn’t occur. We need to continue to improve offensively and from the service line.”

Despite the loss, Pender expressed a positive attitude toward the rest of the team’s season.

“Tonight, (we) made a lot of good plays that we can build on throughout this year,” Pender said. “There are really good takeaways from tonight’s game to focus on in practice and our game next week. I think the people that played this weekend stepped up. We loved what (Vom Steeg) did, and we loved what (redshirt junior setter Adam Parks) did in the middle.”

Matautia said his team was also missing three of its starters because of COVID-19 protocols, and he came out of Thursday’s game with a hip injury.

“Having to play through an injury is definitely tough, especially on the road at BYU,” Matautia said. “Even though we weren’t one-for-one on the road this trip, given the circumstances, this is definitely a huge step in the right direction for us, just to be able to face adversity, to come out on top, and to battle like we did tonight. I think it’s a great learning experience for us, especially this early in the season.”

UCLA will return home to face USC on Saturday in Pauley Pavilion.