MEN’S VOLLEYBALL — The No. 14 UCSD men’s volleyball team rolled into UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion on Feb. 24 facing a heavily favored Bruin team.
But despite the odds, the Tritons upset No. 3 UCLA 30-22, 30-25, 30-26, in a three-set stretch on Feb. 24. This was the third Triton victory over the Bruins in the past three years — and in 38 all-time meetings. With the win, UCSD improved 5-11 overall, and 2-9 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, while UCLA dropped 9-7 overall and 8-5 in the MPSF. Prior to the match, the Bruins had won eight of their last 10 matches.
As soon as they hit the court, the Tritons took the lead and held on until the end of the first set. UCSD hit at .567 with 22 kills, compared to the Bruins’ 11 kills, and won the set 30-22.
In the second set, there were 12 ties and seven lead changes. The Bruins took their final lead in the set at 15-14. UCSD fought back with junior outside hitter Joel Davidson’s kill and took the lead on a UCLA setting error. With the score at 25-23, a UCLA service error and a kill from senior outside hitter Frank Fritsch brought up UCSD’s lead by two points. A Bruin side out, another kill from Fritsch and an ace by senior setter Erik Sierks helped the Tritons take the set 30-25.
The third set was closely fought with 23 ties and six lead changes. UCSD outhit UCLA .405 to .184; however, the Bruins still managed to make it a difficult set. They were narrowly edging past the Tritons by one point until UCSD delivered three consecutive kills via redshirt freshman middle blocker Cyrus Kiani, senior setter Phil Bannan and Davidson, clinching a 27-25 lead. Despite a service error that narrowed the Triton lead to 27-26, a final push from UCSD — including a kill from Fritsch and a block by Kiani — gave them a match point. A UCLA attack error gifted UCSD the final point to finish the set 30-26.
UCSD hit at a .427 overall attack average. Fritsch led the Tritons with 16 kills and a .419 hitting average. Davidson contributed 12 kills. Senior outside hitter Jason Spangler also contributed two service aces, increasing his career total to 78 — just two aces short of tying the all-time record of career-aces at UCSD.
“We got off to a great start. We played steady, and knew UCLA would come back,” head coach Kevin Ring said. “For us, it was a really a complete game. We did everything well.”
On Friday night, the Tritons traveled to Irvine to square off against No. 11 UC Irvine. Unfortunately, UCSD took too long to find its pace in the match and lost in four sets to Irvine 30-15, 30-25, 29-31 and 30-23. The loss dropped the Tritons to 5-12 overall, and 2-10 in MPSF, while the Anteaters improved to 9-9 overall, and 5-8 in MPSF.
UCSD only had nine kills against 11 attack errors in the first set. The second set was unfortunately not much better, with the Tritons hitting at .077.
The Tritons improved in the third set, hitting percentage of .417 and a tally of 24 kills — more than the first two sets combined. Nonetheless, the Anteaters took a quick 15-9 lead. UCSD fought hard to make amends and narrowed UC Irvine’s lead to 26-23. Junior Adrian Guthals’ kill and block, as well as a block by Bannan, tied the set at 26-26. After exchanging a series of points, Davidson sent consecutive kills to give the Tritons a 31-29 set victory.
The Anteaters took a quick 4-1 lead in the fourth set. The Tritons managed to come back at 13-12 until the Anteaters rallied, scoring seven of the next nine points to take its lead to 20-14. Unfortunately, this disparity was too much for the Tritons to close, and the closest UCSD got to victory was 24-21. Ultimately, the Anteaters took the set 30-23.
In the first two sets, the Tritons were hitting below .100. Davidson contributed a team-high 19 kills, Spangler had 14 kills, Guthals contributed seven kills and Fritsch added six kills. Bannan contributed 47 assists and 15 digs.
The Tritons return to action on Friday, March 5, when they travel to Palo Alto to face Stanford at 7 p.m.
“We didn’t pass well against Irvine,” Ring said. “So we’ll practice that before we head to Stanford. We know what we need to do in order to do well, so we’ll be focusing on that.”
Readers can contact Jessy Jahangir at [email protected].
