This post was updated April 12 at 4:31 p.m.

Few moments in a contest are as critical as match point.

The stakes are as high as they can get – and the fans know it, thundering from both sides with excitement.

Lose the point – lose the match. Win the point? Win the match.

After five consecutive match points eventually concluded 19-17 in the fifth set, No. 2 UCLA men’s volleyball (18-4, 8-1 MPSF) clawed its way to victory against No. 7 BYU (17-8, 5-4) in Pauley Pavilion on Friday night.

Despite the back-and-forth affair, Zach Rama said the team focused on maintaining composure.

“Even though it’s 16-15, … it really is just one point,” the junior outside hitter said. “We’ve scored so many points in our volleyball careers, so it’s really just staying in that moment and being confident in what you do.”

To preserve the team’s new four-man serve reception lineup, Rama took on the mantle of opposite hitter, with some usual starters injured. Although the position switch required personnel adjustment, the right-side play paid off against BYU, said Rama – who led the team with 18 kills.

“It’s super hard to switch positions. Whoever’s done it knows it’s really hard,” said freshman outside hitter Sean Kelly, who stepped into Rama’s previous outside hitter role. “He’s super versatile. He could play any position.”

But UCLA’s battle wasn’t without its struggles. It dropped the first and fourth frames to BYU before fighting to clinch the fifth.

With his team posting a .083 hitting percentage in the first set, Kelly was the only UCLA pin hitter to surpass a .150 clip. Rama, despite recording two kills to keep the Bruins alive in the fourth stanza, found himself hitting negative. Meanwhile, junior middle blocker Cameron Thorne garnered more errors than successful attempts.

Timely Bruin attacking errors gave the Cougars the momentum it needed to force a fifth frame.

“There are definitely some things that we can clean up,” Rama said. “It didn’t necessarily need to be that hard.”

After notching 63 service errors in its doubleheader against then-No. 13 Grand Canyon – compared to just 12 aces – UCLA notched a more efficient ace-to-error ratio against BYU with 12 to 31, respectively.

Coach John Hawks – following in the footsteps of his predecessor John Speraw – has preached a philosophy that never punishes his players for service errors, citing high-stakes serves as a catalyst in getting opponents off the net and out of system.

“We’re ready to get out there and show the world that we can make a serve,” Rama said. “We’re excited to go out there and shut people up about these service errors, because everybody talks about them.”

Kelly added that the tight contest allowed him to practice consistency, even in high-stakes affairs.

And with Kelly notching a career-high 13 kills on a .571 clip – alongside two aces and four blocks to tie season highs – it seemed like Hawks’ gamble of inserting the outside hitter into the lineup cashed out.

“We’re talking about staying aggressive and doing what we do – and trust that whenever we get an opportunity, we side out. That is always going to be a consistent message with us,” Hawks said. “I don’t want us to play safe, because when you start playing timid, then errors start accumulating. I feel like for us, it’s about just believing in our side, trusting what our guys do, and being and just standing together as a unit.”