UCLA
UC San Diego
Road Woes Continue: Bruins Fall in Three to Tritons
February 28, 2009 | Men's Volleyball
Feb. 28, 2009
The ninth-ranked UCLA men's volleyball team lost in three games at No.12 UC San Diego Saturday night.
The Tritons won 30-21, 30-23, 33-31 in front of 906 fans in RIMAC Arena. UCSD has won two straight against UCLA in La Jolla after beating the Bruins for the first time in school history in 2008. UCSD improved to 7-9 overall and 3-8 in MPSF play. UCLA lost its fourth straight and dipped to 7-10, 4-7 MPSF. The Bruins are currently 1-6 on the road this season.
UCSD hit at a high efficiency all night, and finished with a .380 team hitting percentage. Will Ehrman had a match-high 14 kills on .458 hitting while Jason Spangler added 12 kills.
The Tritons also managed to out-block the Bruins, 12.0-10.5. Calvin Ross accounted for six of UCSD's blocks.
The Tritons got much help in addition to the nights of Ehrman, Spangler and Ross. Gerald Houseman had nine kills on .571 hitting and four blocks. Frank Fritsch added eight kills and six digs while Eric Leserman had eight digs. Phil Bannan had another all-around game with 44 assists, three aces and five blocks.
Senior Sean O'Malley led the Bruins with 11 kills while freshman Kyle Caldwell added six. Freshman libero Jamey Ker had seven digs and Bret Perrine had two service aces. The Bruins managed to hit at a .120 clip for the match.
In the first set, UCSD hit at a .517 clip and opened up a 20-12 lead. UCSD never trailed UCLA in the first set, taking it 30-21.
The second set was tied five times. The final tie came early at 7-7. From that point, UCSD scored four straight points on Houseman serves, including two kills by Spangler to lead 11-7. UCLA would cut the lead to 15-13, but the Tritons quickly responded with a run, capped by kills from Fritsch, Ross and Spangler to make the score 22-15. UCLA would get no closer than four points the rest of the way as UCSD took the set 30-23.
The third set would feature 16 ties and seven lead changes. UCLA was ahead in the early parts of the set, taking a 15-12 lead. The Tritons pulled even after a Spangler ace and kill by Ehrman. After the set was tied at 20-20, UCLA scored consecutive points on an O'Malley kill and UCSD error to lead 22-20. After a UCSD timeout, the Tritons scored the next four points, including a key block by Ross and Bannan to lead 24-22. With the scored tied at 28-28, Ehrman sent down a kill to force match point at 29-28. After a service error, a UCSD attack error followed and UCLA had the 30-29 lead. A UCLA attack error followed by a Spangler kill gave the Tritons a 31-30 edge. After the teams exchanged kills to give UCSD a 32-31 lead, a Bruin attack was long and the Tritons had the sweep at 33-31.
The Bruins return to Pauley Pavilion next week for matches against Grand Canyon on Mar. 4 and top-ranked UC Irvine on Mar. 6.
