Men’s volleyball serves up back-to-back wins against Stanford

The Bruins picked up two victories in a similar fashion.

No. 9 UCLA men’s volleyball (8-3, 8-3 MPSF) defeated Stanford (0-5, 0-5) twice in four sets at Pauley Pavilion on Friday and Saturday by scores of 23-25, 25-15, 25-13, 25-21 and 21-25, 25-18, 25-12, 25-19, respectively.

The Bruins outperformed the Cardinal in almost every statistical category in Friday night’s victory, outhitting them .385 to .144 and serving up seven aces while the other side had none. Friday was also a career-high night for redshirt freshman outside hitter/opposite Merrick McHenry, who pitched in 17 kills.

“I think people were figuring out that they needed to key on (McHenry),” said coach John Speraw. “He commands a lot of concern from defense.”

Saturday night’s game was nearly a repeat of Friday’s, with Stanford taking the first set of the game, as UCLA had difficulties from the service line with eight service errors.

Freshman outside hitter Ethan Champlin said the team emphasized getting back on its feet.

“A big thing that we were talking about after every timeout and every set was responding,” Champlin said. “That was kind of the word of the day. After we’d get knocked down, we’d try and get right back at them.”

The Bruins then returned and took the second and third sets behind a reversal in service fortune. Champlin served up three aces in a row in the second set, just one ace short of matching the current school record.

McHenry said the team was able to execute several successful runs in Saturday’s victory thanks to help from redshirt junior middle blocker Ian Parish and redshirt senior outside hitter Austin Matautia.

“Once (Parish) was back serving, we were able to get a lot of points and extend our lead,” McHenry said. “I think that (Matautia) really turned it around for us. Once he was able to get some really good serves in, I think it kind of built the whole team’s confidence.”

UCLA outhit Stanford 0.667 to -0.125 in the third set, and at one point, the Bruins took a 14-point lead.

“The third set, I feel like we played really great as a team,” said sophomore outside hitter/opposite Cole Ketrzynski. “We were defending, blocking, everything. … When we got on those runs, I was like, this is a level of volleyball that we can play at.”

The visitors attempted to regain their footing but fell short as UCLA took the fourth set and the victory. Ketrzynski posted 17 kills on .500 hitting, McHenry pitched in 10 kills and Champlin finished the night with a career-high five aces. The Bruins held the Cardinal to a .111 hitting percentage throughout the match while posting a .402 hitting percentage themselves.

“I thought everybody had a standout night tonight – if you look at our hitting percentage across the board, everybody did really, really well,” Speraw said. “(Champlin) coming off the bench and hitting .500, (Matautia) having a nice solid match in .375 … (Ketrzynski) had a lot of really critical swings for us. … That’s a nice night offensively.”

UCLA will play Pepperdine twice next weekend, with the first match at Pauley Pavilion and the second on the road.