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Tonight, the UCLA men's volleyball team is in Utah for a 6 pm PT match against the BYU Cougars.
Last Time Out
It was another sweep by the Bruins when UCLA met Penn State on Saturday. The Bruins won this match 25-12, 25-19, 25-21. Daenan Gyimah and Brandan Rattray led UCLA with 11 and 10 kills, respectively, while Micah Ma'a added 39 assists.
In the first set, the Bruins jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead. After the Lions cut the lead to 2-1, UCLA scored again. But the Lions closed the gap back to a point to make it 3-2, Bruins. UCLA went on a 4-0 run that pretty much sealed the deal on this set as Penn State wouldn't get within a point for the rest of the set and the Bruins took this one, 25-12.
In the second set, Penn State had their first two leads of the match at 1-0 and 2-1. While a 3-0 UCLA mini-run put the Bruins ahead for good, the Nittany Lions didn’t go down without a fight as they cut UCLA’s lead to just a point on five different occasions. The last time they did that, the score was 17-16, UCLA. That was the point where the Bruins slammed the door with a 5-0 run and they now led 22-16. The Bruins cruised to a 25-19 win to take a 2-0 lead.
The third set was the toughest of the match. In this set, Penn State led as late as 16-15 before UCLA rattled off an 8-3 run to take a 23-19 lead before winning the set 25-21 and the match 3-0.
BYU Cougars
The Cougars have had a rough season compared to last season when they won the MPSF title. Right now, they are just 4-3 in the MPSF while the Bruins remain undefeated.
Last month, BYU lost 3-1 to UCLA at Pauley and, frankly, I see no reason why the Bruins won’t win again tonight. It will probably take them an extra set to win this road match, but UCLA should be able to win it. Just in case they can’t, they have a two-game lead over Pepperdine in the standings.
This is your UCLA at BYU men’s volleyball open thread.
Go Bruins!!!