UCLA Men’s Volleyball won its fifth straight match on Thursday night when the Bruins swept Concordia three sets to none to open MPSF play. This evening, UCLA travels to Phoenix to face another new MPSF member, the Grand Canyon University Antelopes.

The Antelopes look like a formidable team, at least, on paper. That’s because the Lopes are 11-2 with their only losses coming against Hawai’i in three sets and against UC Irvine in five sets.

In fact, on Thursday night, the Antelopes topped #11 Pepperdine in five sets, 17-25, 17-25, 25-14, 25-20, 15-9, in their first MPSF match.

Speaking of first MPSF matches, UCLA traveled to Irvine to take on the MPSF’s other new member Concordia University on Thursday and the Bruins swept the Eagles, 25-18, 28-26, 25-17.

Concordia took an early 3-2 lead in the first set, but the Bruins came right back with a 4-0 run to give UCLA a 6-3 lead. While the Eagles would cut the Bruin lead to just one at 7-6 and again at 12-11, they were unable to tie the set back up and the Bruins didn’t look back.

But the Eagles were able to jump out to a 6-3 lead in the second set before UCLA went on a 4-1 run to tie the set back up. With the set tie at 10-10, Concordia went on a 4-0 run to re-take the lead. The Bruins would chip away and finally tie the set at 19-19. The teams split the next ten points and the set was tied 24-24. JT Hatch killed the next point to give UCLA their first set point, but Concordia took the next point at the teams were tied again. A kill by Micah Ma’a gave the Bruins their second set point, but, again, Corcordia tied it back up. Another kill by Ma’a gave UCLA the edge again along with their third set point. Finally, Concordia made an attack error and the Bruins took the set, 28-26.

The Bruins took an early 8-6 lead in the third set, but Concordia used a 4-0 run to tie and then take a two-point lead. UCLA, then, went on a 5-0 run of their own to swing the set back to the Bruins.

It looked like Concordia would tie it back up as they scored the next two points to cut UCLA’s lead to 13-12, but that would be as close as the Eagles would get. The Bruins went on a 6-1 run to take a 19-13 lead. The teams would alternate points and soon UCLA had a 21-16 lead. But the Bruins had one more run in them as they went 4-1 over the next five points to wrap up the set and the match.

This is your UCLA Bruins at Grand Canyon University Antelopes men’s volleyball match thread.


Go Bruins!!!