Although the UCSD men’s volleyball team was able to hang tough with the top team in the nation, the Tritons fell in back-to-back home matches against the Cougars of Brigham Young University on April 2 and April 3. Although UCSD was able to take a game from BYU on April 2, the Cougars won their school record 19th and 20th consecutive matches as the Tritons extended their losing streak to four, bringing their record to 7-18 overall and 3-16 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.
Before a season-high home crowd of 612 on April 2, UCSD failed to come out playing well, and allowed BYU to hit .800 in the opening frame. The Tritons went down hard, 30-22, and were in an early hole.
UCSD managed to stay closer in game two, keeping things tied at 16-16, until the Cougars put together a three-point run to take control of the match. With a 30-26 win, BYU looked completely in control.
The Cougars started fast with a 7-1 run to open the third game, but the Tritons refused to roll over as UCSD head coach Ron Larsen brought in freshman Brooks Dierdorff to take over the setting responsibilities. The team responded immediately and the Tritons charged back to level the game at 14-14. A subsequent run on sophomore outside hitter Jeff Urton’s serve gave UCSD a 19-16 cushion and a lead it would not relinquish. Relying heavily on junior outside hitter Adam Toren, who powered the Tritons with 10 of his match-high 20 kills in game three, UCSD picked up the 30-28 win.
Game four was once again competitive as the two sides battled, but with the score level at 11 apiece, BYU rattled off a five-point run to take control of the match and secure the 3-1 victory with a 30-26 win.
The Cougars outblocked the Tritons 12.5-2 and outhit UCSD by .500 to .300, but the biggest problem in the box score for the Tritons was the 26 service errors they committed.
“We missed way too many serves to try to win this match,” Larsen said. “There are certain indicators of success in volleyball — of winning and losing — and the most important indicator is killing the ball, but almost equally important is not missing serves.”
Although Larsen was critical of his team’s serving, he praised his squad’s resiliency.
“It’s good that we battled. We could have mailed it in after game two,” Larsen said.
The players also took positives out of the first match against BYU. Some even thought the Tritons carried an advantage into the second match.
“We have the edge on them,” Urton said. “They know we can compete, and now we know that we can compete.”
In game one on April 3, UCSD gave BYU all the competition it could handle. In a very tight contest , the two teams were tied 13 times and neither squad ever led by more than three points. The Cougars controlled the majority of the action, but the Tritons looked constantly poised to level the match, grabbing a late lead at 27-26. Unfortunately, the menace of serving errors from April 2 came back to plague UCSD yet again as the Cougars rallied down the stretch to win, 31-29.
Game two featured 21 ties and more tight action, the underdog Tritons hanging with the favored BYU team. The teams combined for 40 kills and 15 errors in a high-flying battle that ended in a 36-34 BYU victory only after the Cougars successfully defended against three Triton game point attempts.
A deflated UCSD side had little left in game three and was finished off 30-22 by the Cougars for the sweep.
With just three matches left in MPSF conference play, the Tritons have no hope of reaching the playoffs, so they are forced to look for other motivations.
“Our focus is mostly pride and playing for the seniors,” Urton said.
Waller, one of the seniors, came up with a huge rebound performance in the second BYU match after tallying just two kills in the first contest and making eight errors. Waller finished his April 3 performance with 20 kills and five digs, and even managed to lead the team in blocks with five. Waller now needs just 37 kills in the Tritons’ final four matches to break the UCSD all-time career kills record of 1,268. He says he uses the record for motivation.
“I think about it when I’m out there,” Waller said. “It’s in my mind without a doubt, especially now that our team goals are not nearly as prominent. It’d just be something that’s nice to have for me. I’m really trying to break it Senior Night at home, so I’m really going for that because breaking it on the road wouldn’t mean as much.”
The record watch will continue as the Tritons close out their home schedule with matches against UC Santa Barbara, Cal State Northridge and California Baptist April 9, April 10 and April 13, respectively, at RIMAC Arena. First serve is at 7 p.m. for all matches.