UCLA
Pacific
Bruins Sweep Tigers in Saturday Night Rout
January 21, 2012 | Men's Volleyball
Jan. 21, 2012
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Senior middle blockers Weston Dunlap and Thomas Amberg led the third-ranked UCLA men's volleyball team to its second straight MPSF sweep Saturday night against Pacific.
The Bruins have opened conference play with consecutive sweeps against Stanford and UOP. Saturday's set scores were 25-17, 25-18, 25-20 in 75 minutes in front of 418 fans at Collins Court. The Bruins improved to 7-1 overall, 2-0 in league play. The Tigers fell to 3-3, 1-2.
UCLA jumped on Pacific early in Set 1, forcing the Tigers to call both timeouts after the hosts ran to an 11-4 lead. Pacific managed a few minor rallies, but never got closer than five points. Dunlap finished off the visitors in the first set with a kill, capping a 3-1 run. UCLA hit .600 on a 15-0-25 hitting line led by Amberg's four kills.
In Set 2, the Tigers managed to close the gap, hanging with the Bruins until the hosts broke a 7-7 tie with a 4-0 run, highlighted by kills from sophomore Gonzalo Quiroga and Dunlap. After a UOP timeout at 11-7 netted a point from the visitors, the Bruins compiled a 4-1 run sparked by a kill from senior Nick Vogel and a combo block from senior Jeremy Casebeer and Amberg. UOP would close the gap to 20-18, but the Bruins finished the set with a 5-1 run, scoring four straight points on a pair of aces by Quiroga, a kill by Dunlap and a combo block to end it by Caldwell and Dunlap.
The final set was a back-and-forth affair with the Bruins breaking a 14-all tie with a 3-0 run on two kills from Quiroga and one from Dunlap. But the Tigers climbed back into it, when Amberg committed a service error and Vogel and Dunlap made hitting miscues. The teams traded points until the Bruins broke a 20-20 tie with a 5-0 run to end the set and match. Two kills by Casebeer and a pair of combo blocks gave the Bruins their seventh victory in eight matches.
The Bruins hit .442, committed just seven errors in 86 swings and out-blocked UOP, 5.0-1.0. UCLA also committed zero reception errors while serving six aces, led by three from Quiroga. Caldwell recorded 36 set assists and five points on two kills, two aces and a pair of block assists. Amberg scored 13.0 points on 10 kills (.909), setting a new school record for single match hitting percentage. Dunlap hit .588 and added a block assist to go along with his 12 kills.
Adam Troy and Taylor Hughes led the Tigers with nine kills apiece.
The Bruins' home stand continues next week with matches against CS Northridge on Jan. 25 and UC Santa Barbara on Jan. 27.
