Thursday night at Pauley Pavilion, No. 1 UCLA men’s volleyball team (25-1, 12-1 MPSF) shook off a rough stretch in the second set to defeat No. 8 BYU (20-10, 7-6 MPSF) in four sets, 3-1, continuing its dominant season.
The Bruins came out looking sharp. The first set was close early on, but UCLA started to find a rhythm after a service ace from redshirt junior opposite David Decker. That spark carried through the rest of the set. The Bruins cleaned things up defensively, stayed aggressive at the net, and slowly pulled away. By the end, it wasn’t particularly close, as UCLA took the set 25-14.
Then the second set flipped everything.
BYU came out with much more energy and control, stringing together points with strong, consistent kills that UCLA struggled to stop. The Bruins, meanwhile, couldn’t quite settle in. A few service errors at key moments didn’t help, and even when UCLA put together solid attacks, it wasn’t enough to shift the momentum.
The Cougars kept widening the gap and took the set 25-17.
However, this did not stop the Bruins.
The third set started off tight again, with both teams trading points. There was a brief moment of uncertainty when senior middle blocker Cameron Thorne went down, but the Bruins responded instead of unraveling.
Another ace from Decker helped swing things back, and UCLA started to take control. Senior outside hitter Zach Rama closed out the set with a kill, giving the Bruins a 25-17 win.
By the fourth set, UCLA looked like itself again. Even after they fell behind 6-2 early, they came back with a three-point run.
A kill from junior middle blocker Micah Wong Diallo got the crowd rocking and moved the Bruins ahead to 12-9. He helped finish things off with the final kill to seal the match.
Decker had an impressive three aces in the final set.
UCLA will be back at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday, April 18 at 5:00 p.m. PST for its final home game of the regular season with another matchup against BYU. The Bruins will also honor their seniors before turning their attention to the MPSF tournament.
