| Men’s Volleyball |
|---|
| UCLA — 3 |
| Stanford — 0 |
Just four teams away.
The No. 1 UCLA men’s volleyball team (19-0, 6-0 MPSF) is just four teams away from an undefeated season, with its last being in 1984. After tonight’s win against No. 14 Stanford (9-9, 6-1 MPSF), they are one step closer to another record.
The Bruins started the first set with a serve by redshirt junior opposite David Decker, who kept the five-point scoring run going with an ace. Stanford called a much-needed team-out as a result, giving them enough time to figure out how to approach the Bruins’ offensive attacks.
After a few blocks and kills, Stanford managed to close the gap between the two teams, beginning to match the Bruins in their level of play. Senior middle blocker Cameron Thorne pushed a two-point lead behind the service line, creating momentum that the front row offense was able to piggyback off of for the next four straight points.
Senior setter Andrew Rowan sniped an ace for the Bruins, taking them to set point, where he let Stanford make two errors of their own for the set win, 25-17.
The second set was more or less the same for the Bruins. Junior middle blocker Micah Wong Diallo snatched the first point for a positive start to the second set. On fire, Wong Diallo aces his first serve of the set, and Thorne jumped on the middle blocker train with three consecutive skills in his first rotation.
Using the poorly placed block to his advantage, Decker tooled the Trees for another point. With a set by Rowan, Thorne killed the ball in the middle to end the second set, 25-23.
In the last and final set, it became clear very early that Stanford wasn’t going to give up this set to the Bruins without a fight.
Sophomore outside hitter Sean Kelly stepped up with incredible defense in the back row and hard attacks in the front row. Only trailing by two points, Stanford continuously attacked the ball against the strong blocks put up by UCLA’s front row. In the moments following his rotation back onto the court, Thorne tacked on three more kills and a block with Decker, pushing Stanford to call a timeout. Down four points, Stanford called a timeout, 22-18. Undeterred, senior outside hitter Zach Rama gets the set point for the Bruins with an assist from Rowan, to set him again to end the match, 25-20.
Up next, the Bruins will be taking on Stanford one more time on March 28, at 6 p.m. PST.
