UCLA
CSUN (MPSF QF)
Bruins Fall in Five to Matadors
April 23, 2005 | Men's Volleyball
April 23, 2005
Second-ranked UCLA fell 3-2 to Cal State Northridge in the quarterfinals of the MPSF Tournament Saturday at Pauley Pavilion.
Cal State Northridge (19-13) advanced to the MPSF semifinals against Pepperdine (21-2) on Apr. 28. Sixth-seeded UC Santa Barbara upset third-seeded BYU 3-2 in Provo, UT. The Gauchos meet the winner of the Long Beach State-Hawaii match, which began at 10 p.m. (PDT).
UCLA fell to 25-5, but still has a chance to advance to the NCAA Championship, which it hosts on May 5 & 7.
The Matadors won 30-25, 30-27, 18-30, 22-30, 16-14 in two hours and five minutes before 644 fans. They snapped a six-match losing streak to the Bruins and won their first match in Pauley Pavilion in two years.
After falling behind by two games, the Bruins stormed back to win Games 3 and 4 on the strength of their serving, blocking and the hot hand of senior Gray Garrett, who pounded a career-high 24 kills (.476) in 40 swings.
But in Game 5 with a four-point lead and match point, the Bruins failed to convert. After a kill by CS Northridge junior Brian Waite cut the Bruins' lead to 14-11, freshman Isaac Kneubuhl served five straight points to give the Matadors the improbable victory. A block by Waite on an attack by UCLA's Paul Johnson cut the lead to 14-12 and the Bruins called the first of two timeouts. On the next serve, Garrett committed his second hitting error of the night and the Matadors were down by one. The Bruins called their last timeout. Northridge setter Jeff Conover tied the match with a kill, and a kill by junior Cary Hanson and a block by Waite gave the Matadors a date in the conference semifinals.
Senior Jonathan Acosta recorded 12 kills (.476) off the bench for the Bruins, followed by 11 each from Johnson (.444) and sophomore Steve Klosterman. Because of an injury to starting setter Dennis Gonzalez, the Bruins started junior Aaron Dodd and he recorded a career-high 56 set assists and scored 5.5 points on two kills and six total blocks. Dodd added 10 digs and freshman Libero Tony Ker led the Bruins with 12 digs.
Senior Nils Nielson led CS Northridge with 28 kills and 30.5 points. Nielson recorded three kills in the final game. Waite and Hanson each added 11 kills, and sophomore James Lischer contributed 10.
