UCLA
Pacific
Bruins Advance to Playoffs Despite Loss to Tigers
April 17, 2010 | Men's Volleyball
April 17, 2010
Although seventh-ranked UCLA suffered one of the most puzzling losses of the season Saturday night to unranked Pacific, the Bruins still earned their 47th overall playoff berth since 1963.
Pacific won 30-28, 30-25, 30-28 in 90 minutes before 442 fans. The victory was UOP's first in Pauley Pavilion and its first conference win in three years, snapping a 59-match league losing streak. The Tigers finished with a 1-21 conference mark and were 9-21 overall. UCLA fell to 16-13, 11-11 in seventh place.
In the first round of the MPSF playoffs, seventh-seeded UCLA will travel to second-seeded BYU for a quarterfinal match-up at 7 p.m. (MDT) on Apr. 24. In January, the teams split a pair of conference matches in Pauley Pavilion.
Saturday's loss to Pacific represented a curious trend for UCLA. In 2010, the Bruins were swept at home by Long Beach State, UC San Diego and Pacific, teams that finished 10th-12th in the MPSF this season, respectively, without playoff berths.
Conversely, UCLA defeated three teams that were ranked No.1: Cal State Northridge twice and Stanford on Friday night.
On Saturday, UCLA hit just .088 with 33 hitting errors in 114 attempts. UOP, which ranked last in conference blocking, smothered the UCLA attack with 18.5 blocks. Only sophomore Thomas Amberg recorded a respectable hitting percentage for the Bruins -- he hit .423 with 13 kills. Sophomore Jack Polales added seven kills and senior Brett Perrine recorded six off the bench.
Florian Gornik led the Tigers with 14 kills, three aces and four block assists for 19.0 points. Taylor Hughes added 11 kills (.429) and 14.0 points.
