UCLA Men’s Volleyball Starts a Three-Match Roadtrip By Visiting CSUN

This evening, the UCLA men’s volleyball team starts a three-match roadtrip, even if tonight’s means of travel is by ground over the hill into the Valley to Northridge.

Last Time Out

On Saturday night, the Bruins topped the UCSD Tritons in four sets, 25-20, 25-13, 23-25, 25-19. In the first set, the teams split the first twelve points. At that point, Dylan Missry killed a volley to put UCLA up 7-6 and he followed that with a service ace. While the Tritons closed the gap to a point on six different occasions, they weren’t able to tie the set back up and the Bruins went on to win the first set, 25-20.

In the second set, a service error by UCSD and a service ace by Grant Maleski put UCLA up 2-0 early. That was the beginning of a 10-2 run by the Bruins to start the second set. The closest the Tritons would get in this set after that point would be being down by four as UCLA cruised to a 25-13 win to go up two sets to none.

The Bruins led for most of the early part of the third set and, in fact, they led by three as late as 13-10. But, over the next 11 points, the Tritons chipped away at UCLA’s lead to tie the set up 17-17 and, ten points later, the set was tied 22-22. At that point, the Tritons managed to score three of the next four points to steal the set, 25-23.

The fourth set began with the Tritons scoring the first point, but it was all Bruins after that as UCLA went on a 6-2 run to double up UCSD. A pair of Triton points closed UCLA’s lead to one and the lead seesawed back and forth between a one-point and a two-point lead until Brandon Rattray made it 10-7. The Bruins took 14 of the next 22 points to take a 24-15 lead for their first match point. UCSD managed to score the next four points to stave off four straight match points, but a service error by the Tritons’ Xander Jimenez wiped out any chance of a UCSD comeback and the Bruins took the fourth set, 25-19, and the match, 3-1.

Cal State Northridge Matadors

The Matadors are 2-1 on the young season. They started the season with wins over Concordia and Harvard, but lost on Saturday to Grand Canyon University in five sets.

Outlook

Tonight’s match should be a relatively easy one for the Bruins. Given that it’s not at home, I think it’s likely the Bruins will drop one of the sets and maybe even two, but a UCLA victory should never be in doubt.

This is your UCLA men’s volleyball vs. CSUN open thread.


Go Bruins!!