The King Tornado proved to be no stronger than a Santa Ana Wind last night when they played UCLA in volleyball, but that was expected.

Actually, they came out strong to start taking the lead three times in the first six points to start off 4-2. But, the Bruins went on a 6-1 run to take an 8-5 lead. The Tornado got as close as two points down three times at 9-7, 10-8, and 15-13 but they couldn’t get any closer and UCLA took the first set 25-17.

King came out stronger in the second set and, after eleven points, the Tornado led 7-4. A 4-0 run gave the Bruins their first lead of the set, but King scored the next two to retake the lead, 9-8. UCLA scored nine of the next twelve points to take a commanding 17-11 lead and the Bruins closed out the set 25-16.

The Bruins played a very strong third set. They started out winning the first four points and eight of the first ten points and the set was pretty much all Bruins as UCLA won the set, 25-11, and completed the sweep of the match, 3-0.

Jake Arnitz and JT Hatch led the Bruins with 8 kills each while Hatch also led the team in digs with 10. Micah Ma’a led all players with 30 assists for the Bruins.

Tonight, the Bruins will face the McKendree Bearcats. McKendree is a small, private liberal arts university located in Lebanon, IL, in the greater St. Louis area. Like King University, McKendree is religiously affiliated. McKendree is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. McKendree about 1/10th the size of UCLA with a total of about 3,000 students.

The Bearcats were swept by Long Beach State earlier in the week. They then lost to UC San Diego, 3-2, last night and they lost to King, 3-1, this morning. As a result, the Bruins shouldn’t have too much difficulty winning tonight’s match.

This is your UCLA vs. McKendree Men’s Volleyball game thread.


Go Bruins!