No. 11 UC San Diego men’s volleyball (3-3, 0-0 Big West) fell to No. 1 UCLA (6-0, 1-0 MPSF) in straight sets on Friday, Jan. 23, at LionTree Arena. While getting swept is never a good look, the Tritons held their own against the top team in the country, pushing UCLA hard in the third set before the Bruins took it 28-26.
“We can compete with anyone in the nation,” head coach Brad Rostratter said in a postgame interview with The UCSD Guardian. “We had moments [where] we were in the lead, in control of points, and even had some swings for sets. Where we need to get to is being able to execute and finish those situations.”
The game began with UCSD jumping out to an early lead; junior outside Sebastiano Sani recorded back-to-back aces to force UCLA to use an early timeout. The Bruins worked their way back into the game, but service errors plagued UCLA in the beginning of the set.
Senior opposite hitter Luke Chandler came alive with a kill to kick off a 3-point Triton run that gave UCSD, with a 12-9 lead, some breathing room. However, UCLA began showing off its power once again, scoring on a couple of violent kills and big blocks en route to taking the first set 25-21.
Chandler made another emphatic kill to start off the second set, and senior middle blocker Peter Selcho got in the action with one of his own to give the Tritons an early 5-4 lead. All game, the Tritons had trouble stopping the quick set to the middle, and UCLA came back with a tricky set dump to push the Bruins in front once again. A Chandler block followed by a filthy back-row attack from junior outside hitter Josh Ewert cut the Bruin lead to one late in the second set, though UCLA finished up on a pair of aces to win it 25-21.
The teams stayed deadlocked in the third set, both struggling with service errors, until UCLA’s attacking dominance allowed the Bruins to pull away. They would finish with 46 kills compared to UCSD’s 34. The Tritons continued to battle, but Bruin senior middle blocker Cameron Thorne’s physicality in the middle made it hard to mount a serious comeback — though that didn’t stop Ewert from bouncing a ball so hard it almost hit the roof on the way back up.
Service errors — UCLA’s main weakness — kept the Tritons in the game. UCLA ended with 19 service errors, compared to the Tritons’ 12. The discrepancy may have had something to do with the atmosphere. Triton superfan Billy Morris was screaming during their serves, and the packed arena got rowdier and rowdier as the game went on.
“Having the student body and the Triton Tide out in full force, that’s what these guys love and live for,” Rostratter said. “You saw it with their reactions after a lot of the big points or big serves. They really fed off it. I think that definitely helped us play a little bit better tonight.”
The Tritons took advantage of the Bruins’ mistakes, forging a 20-18 lead on an ace from Sani. UCLA sent it to the Big West offensive player of the week, senior outside hitter Zach Rama, to even the score, but Chandler couldn’t be stopped. He pushed the Tritons out in front 22-21 late in the third set.
Chandler was the standout of the game, holding his own against the undefeated Bruins in his first Triton start. He led UCSD with 11 kills by the end of the night.
“This was a special moment for me in my first-ever start at home in my time here at UCSD,” Chandler said to The Guardian. “A few weeks ago, I wasn’t starting, didn’t really have a lot of time on the court. A guy goes down, you gotta step up, and it’s just cool that the setter trusted me to give it to me in some of those moments.”
After an unbelievable rally, Sani laid down the biggest kill of the night, sending the crowd into a frenzy and bringing the Tritons to set point. UCLA served with the set on the line with the crowd as loud as possible. However, UCLA won the point to tie the set at 24. Chandler responded with a kill to put the Tritons back on match point, but Rama came through again to level the score. A Triton attacking error ended the game in anticlimactic fashion, and the Bruins took the third and final set 28-26.
The Tritons fly to Illinois next week to face Lewis and Loyola Chicago on Jan. 30 and 31.
