UCLA
UC San Diego
No. 3 UCLA Upset by UC San Diego in Four Sets
March 30, 2012 | Men's Volleyball
March 30, 2012
San Diego, Calif. - The third ranked UCLA Bruins dropped the first two sets and were unable to muster a comeback as they were defeated by the UC San Diego Tritons in four sets on Friday night.
With the loss, the Bruins dropped to 19-5 overall and are 13-4 in MPSF play. By contrast, UCSD improved to 7-16 overall and 5-13 in conference play. UCLA has now dropped four of the last five matches at RIMAC Arena. Set scores were 25-20, 25-21, 21-25 and 25-21.
In the first set, UCSD jumped out to an early 9-4 lead and didn't look back as they maintained that five point lead up to 15-10. The Bruins tried to claw back but were unable to get any closer than three points in the set and eventually fell to the Tritons 25-20.
The second set started out differently as UCLA got out to a 6-1 lead behind the play of seniors Jeremy Casebeer and Thomas Amberg. UCSD climbed back though and tied the match at 8-8 after a kill from Vaun Lennon. When the score was tied at 14-14, the Tritons were able to create some breathing room after taking two straight points to make it 16-14. UCSD continued to expand their lead as the Bruins again were unable to cut into the deficit and the Tritons took set two by the score of 25-21.
The Bruins did gain some momentum in the third set when they amassed an 11-6 lead in the third set after Nick Vogel hammered home a kill and recorded an ace to force a UCSD timeout. Once again the Tritons came back and put the pressure back on the Bruins as they made it 18-17. But UCLA forced an attacking error and got a block from Casebeer and Weston Dunlap to regain a three point lead for the Bruins. UCLA would not look back from there and took set three 25-21.
The fourth set was tightly contested to begin as each team traded points until the set was tied at 13-13. However, UCSD took the next four points to take the lead at 17-13 and put all the pressure back on the Bruins. UCLA would make a small run and took three straight points after that to make it 17-16, but the Tritons would not be denied as they held on to their lead and closed out the match in four sets after a 25-21 fourth set victory.
Dunlap led the Bruins with a team-high 11 kills and 12.5 points on a .500 hitting percentage. Gonzalo Quiroga and Amberg recorded 10.5 points apiece with nine and seven kills respectively. Quiroga also led the Bruins with nine digs. Nick Vogel was the only other UCLA player in double figures as he registered 10 points on eight kills, an ace and a solo block.
Overall, UCLA hit just .186 in the match while the Tritons hit .248. Carl Eberts led UCSD with 16 kills on the night.
UCLA will now head back up the freeway to take on the top-ranked UC Irvine Anteaters on Saturday, Mar. 31 at 7 pm at Crawford Court on the UC Irvine campus.
