| Men’s Volleyball |
|---|
| Lewis — 0 |
| UCLA — 3 |
Aloha from the beautiful island of Hawaii. With sandy beaches and stunning sunsets, tourists from all over visit the tropics to relax with the ocean waves and take time off work. This, of course, doesn’t apply to athletes on their way to win a national title.
With a flight to the island state, the No. 1 Bruins left LAX to set the record straight. With three months of games under their belt and an undefeated record, the Bruins had their sight set on winning the Outrigger Invitational. Their first stop: Lewis University. The UCLA Bruins (17-0, 5-0 MPSF) played against No. 14 Lewis University (12-8, 5-4 MIVA) at the SimpliFi Arena in Hawaii and won in three sets.
The Lewis Flyers snagged the lead off the first set, but sophomore outside hitter Sean Kelly scored the first points on the board for the Bruins with a successful attack. The Bruins began to slowly, yet surely, catch up, and, with a 3-0 scoring run led by Kelly, the Bruins tied the score at 5-5. The front row saw plenty of action, with a sharp kill from the center by sophomore middle blocker Micah Wong Diallo, and shut down solo block by senior outside hitter Zach Rama.
The Flyers tried their best to maintain their hard-earned ranked position and kept the score tight with the Bruins, trailing close behind. At 16-17, the Bruins struggled to hold onto their lead, and with luck, were given a two-point gap after the Flyers gave up a few errors of their own. The Bruins capitalized on their opponents’ mistakes, maintaining their lead until they reached the 20s, and the Flyers were left with no other choice but to call a timeout. Redshirt junior opposite David Decker came back out, killed the next point, and Kelly wrapped up the first set, 25-22.
The second set was consistent on both sides, with both teams pining after each point. With an assist from Wong Diallo, senior setter Andrew Rowan got his second kill and remained the only player with a hitting percentage of 1.000. In an interesting sandwich of plays after being tied at 13-13, Rowan set senior middle blocker Cameron Thorne for a kill, went back to serve an ace, and proceeded to set Thorne for another kill, giving the Bruins the advantage over Lewis.
The Bruins maintained their lead, almost reaching the 20s, when Lewis’s head coach, Dan Friend, called a timeout for a chance to regroup. That turned out to be a great choice for the Flyers, as they scored the next three kills against the Bruins, tying the game 19-19. Still, the Bruins kept a cool head, and two kills from Thorne had Lewis scrambling to call another timeout. An attack error by the Flyers right after only foreshadowed their demise, and the Bruins ended the set with another kill by Kelly, 25-23.
At the start of the final set, the Flyers had made it clear that this set wasn’t something they were just going to hand over, and with four points, had an edge over the Bruins. The Bruins, now having to play catch-up, took a few kills of their own and followed the Flyers just two points behind. Soon enough, with a block assist by Rowan and Thorne, and an ace by Wong Diallo, the Bruins had tied up the game 6-6. The teams continued to swap points for most of the set.
Towards the end, sophomore setter Trent Taliaferro went back to serve for Wong Diallo, giving Rowan another kill with a set from Kelly. The Bruins were successful in a triple block with their front row, led by Throne, with Rowan and Rama on each side. After establishing their scoring run, Lewis called a timeout for a moment to strategize their next play and ice out Taliaferro. With a few more kills by the Bruins and errors made by the Flyers, the Bruins won the last set after a kill by Wong Diallo, 25-19.
The next round of the Outrigger Invitational against the University of Mount Olive was unfortunately cancelled just hours before the first round due to unexpected severe weather conditions. Their next match is still scheduled against No. 3 Hawaii on March 14 at 10 p.m. PST.
