This post was updated March 2 11:16 p.m.

Little notice was given that Ido David – the senior outside hitter/opposite who was initially slated to start – would be out for the evening.

But when he injured himself during warmups, David Decker was unexpectedly thrown into the frenzy to open the match.

In a fast-paced sport where preparation can only go so far, players are expected to adapt at a moment’s notice – and No. 2 UCLA men’s volleyball (10-3) did just that to prevail over No. 16 UC Santa Barbara (8-8) in four sets Friday night at the Thunderdome.

“We’ve been talking about that as a staff and hadn’t practiced it, so it was something that we had to do on the fly,” coach John Hawks said. “Moving some guys around and switch blocking here and there, and putting our guys in a position to do what they do well. I don’t think they were prepared, but they’re volleyball players, and that’s what we asked them to do.”

If Decker needed time to adjust, he revealed few detectable signs of scramble – sporting five kills to kick off the first set. The redshirt sophomore opposite hitter refused to let his momentum be thwarted, concluding the night with 10 kills, setting a career second-best in the process.

Throwing together an amalgamation of players seemed perfectly natural to the first-year head coach, given the depth of his roster – one filled with numerous AVCA All-Americans. Outside hitters junior Zach Rama and redshirt junior Cooper Robinson – who both rank in the top 50 in the nation for kills per set and hitting percentage – joined Decker with double-digit kills, garnering 11 and 13, respectively.

Adding to the fray, junior middle blocker Cameron Thorne notched 11 kills on a .917 clip. Thorne’s performance follows back-to-back career-high performances against UC Irvine that presented him with MPSF/Molten Offensive Player of the Week and AVCA National Player of the Week accolades on Feb. 24 and 25.

To further proclaim the versatility of his bench, Hawks replaced Decker midway through the third set with Sean Kelly. The freshman outside hitter, who was named the 2023 CIF Division I Player of the Year at 17 years old, contributed four kills of his own to finish out the night on Decker’s behalf.

“We decided to make a change there because we just needed a little spark,” Hawks said. “Kelly came in and really provided that for us. We ended up getting a nice little lead in that third set towards the end and sticking with it in set four, so I was pumped there.”

Several serving substitutions introduced sophomore outside hitter Kahale Clini and freshman setter Trent Taliaferro – who have been rotated in occasionally throughout the season – at key moments.

A third-set serving run led by Clini spurred a 17-16 score into a four-point Bruin lead, and another run in the fourth set helped generate an eight-point edge. And coming directly off the bench in the second set, Taliaferro prompted an overpass from UCSB, giving Rama an opportunity to swing for the kill.

“I knew that when I was a freshman, I wasn’t going to play, but I knew that I would be really good one day,” Robinson said. “And all these young guys have the same aspirations, which is really healthy for the culture in the program. You’re honestly only as good as your bench. That’s always been the memo the past couple years.”

Despite similarly restraining the Gauchos to four sets Wednesday, Hawks ran a much tighter offense to complete the second half of the doubleheader, garnering an improvement from hitting .237 to a more effective .535 in two days’ time. The Bruins didn’t allow themselves to drop below a .400 clip, with their only sub-.500 hitting percentage coming in the second set tying the Gauchos’ .480 clip – UCSB’s most efficient set during which UCLA never once led.

Having helped achieve the highest team hitting percentage UCLA had seen all season, Thorne said he’s been excited to see the team excel against UCSB and in the past few matches. The squad is set to play Stanford next week, officially commencing MPSF conference play for the year.

“We just came together and all told each other, ‘We really need to lock in,’ in the third, fourth set. We didn’t want to go five. We were playing against a good team,” Thorne said. “They were scrapping really hard, so we came out there. … We all wanted to win and go home.”