UCLA
UC San Diego
Bruins Sweep Tritons in Pauley
February 02, 2013 | Men's Volleyball
Feb. 2, 2013
Follow UCLA Athletics on Twitter
Follow UCLA Athletics on Facebook
The fifth-ranked UCLA men's volleyball returned to the victory column Saturday night with its second sweep of the season, blanking visiting UC San Diego in Pauley Pavilion.
The Bruins won their 52nd match against the Tritons in the all-time series and second this season. Set scores were 25-10, 33-31, 25-22 in 83 minutes before 649 spectators. The Bruins improved to 8-5 overall, 4-3 in MPSF play. UC San Diego fell to 4-8, 2-6.
In Set 1 after the Tritons tied the score 2-2, the Bruins scored six points to force UCSD to call its first timeout, down 8-4. A 4-2 run by the Bruins forced UCSD to call its final timeout, and afterwards the rout was on. UCLA scored seven straight points with junior Dane Worley at the service line. Junior Gonzalo Quiroga, who led all players with 17 kills (.424), recorded a kill and combined with junior Spencer Rowe on a block. Worley served an ace and senior Scott Vegas added another kill. The Tritons finally got a point, but the score was out of hand at 19-8. Two kills by Quiroga and a pair of aces from the Argentinian iced the set for UCLA.
The Bruins held leads of 13-8, 14-9 and 23-19 in Set 2 only to let them slip away. The Tritons had already called all of their timeouts by the time they mounted a furious rally, tying the score at 24-24 on two UCLA hitting errors, a kill by Vaun Lennon and a block by Mike Brunsting and Sebastian Brady. The score went back and forth; UCLA let slip seven set points before Lennon committed a hitting error and Rowe slammed a kill to give the Bruins a 2-0 sets advantage and a brow-wiping 33-31 victory.
UCSD kept it close in Set 3: there were seven ties and four lead changes. After a combo block by Eberts and Greg Smith on a Rowe attempt, the Bruins called timeout ahead 21-20. A pair of kills from Quiroga gave the hosts a three-poiunt cushion, but the visitors fought back and cut the margin to 24-22 after another kill by Lennon. At set point UCSD's Cory Swartzbaugh served long and the Bruins had their eighth victory of the season.
In addition to his 17 kills, Quiroga led all players with four aces and 22.5 points. Vegas also recorded double-digit kills, spiking 11 and serving two aces. Rowe added eight kills (.636) and 10 points.
Eberts led UCSD with 10 kills, followed by nine from Lennon.
The Bruins travel to Cal Baptist on Thursday (Feb. 7) and visit BYU on Saturday (Feb. 9).
