Back indoors we go, after that quick dalliance to the beach. I was excited to watch this match, as it's my first first-hand look at the Tritons and it's, for once, a stream not involving BYU or Hawaii.
The video quality was perfectly nice. Audio super quiet, but headphones help there. The tough part was no on-screen scoreboard. Makes it so much harder to follow along. The commentators did their best to keep updated on it, but when you can't just look at something and know the score, it's tough to know the context of things. There's a reason there's always a scoreboard in the arena, of course.
The story of set 1 was UCLA's serving. The Bruins got six aces in the set, from Dane Worley, Steve O'Dell, and Gonzalo Quiroga. Each of the three of them also had a service error, interestingly each coming after a stoppage in play. Two were Triton timeouts, and the first stoppage was when UCSD's Chase Frishman took a spike off the face and was briefly examined by a team doctor. The Bruins were able to side out nearly every time they were on service reception. At the outset, the Tritons did likewise, but the Bruins really poured it on as the set wore on, UCSD having no real answer for their front-line hitting or blocking. The final was a gruesome 25-10 count.
Set 2 started off more evenly, with the Bruins establishing and keeping a 2-point lead for a stretch. From 10-8, UCLA ran off three straight to go ahead 13-8 at the Tritons' first timeout. UCSD just weren't able to get any runs of their own. The most competitive they could be was trading sideouts. And then the set ran even for a while at a 4-point margin as well. The Tritons chipped away at the lead, getting a point on serve and there to draw within a point at 18-17. The Bruins ran out again to 22-19 at UCSD's last timeout. Quiroga came out of the timeout beautifully with his fourth ace of the match — dude can serve. UCLA first got set point at 24-21, but the Tritons staved off the first two set points in advance of the last timeout of the set, with Carl Eberts responding with a run on serve of his own. I'll let my twitter account tell the tale:
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And UCLA at last put it away, 33-31.
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But sideout. 32-31 UCLA.
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Eberts to the service line. He was on serve when the Tritons had their run to draw even at 24.
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And a-gain. 31-all.
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Great D from UCSD, but they weren't able to set their offense properly. 31-30 UCLA, set point yet again.
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Deep and long. 30-all. Man.
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Serve into the net. 30-29 with
@gonchiquiroga rotating to the service line. -
Quiroga wide after a free ball to the UCLA side. 29-all.
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Set point again for UCLA at 29-28.
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Aaaaaand again. 28-all. Looked like the setter Brunsting was gonna dump, but a nice 1-handed set instead.
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UCSD serve /just/ barely wide, 28-27 UCLA.
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27-27. What a difference a set makes.
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Roll shot off the UCSD blocker's dome for 27-26 set point for UCLA.
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26-all. Here we go again.
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Whoa, fortunate break for UCLA as UCSD's block clung to the net on its way out of bounds on the opposite side. 26-25 set point for UCLA.
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Eberts serves long.
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Set point for
@UCSDVOLLEYBALL at 25-24 after a right-side double block. -
Whoa, big run for
@UCSDVOLLEYBALL to knot the set at 24. -
Much better set 2 in LA. 24-23 set point for
@UCLAMensVB with all timeouts burned, but@UCSDVOLLEYBALL have already staved off 2 set points.
TheNetSet So that was pretty wild.
Set 3 started off pretty evenly, until UCSD actually ran ahead to take one of their first leads of the night at 8-6, prompting UCLA's timeout. Coach Speraw sure didn't look happy with his guys, but from 10-8 the Bruins rattled off three straight to essentially draw the set even (as UCSD followed with a sideout). At 13-11, UCSD took their first timeout. The Tritons coach came out to protest a pretty obvious call on the rally ending 15-12, seemingly establishing it as one of his strategies (trying to ice the server perhaps). Didn't really work, though, as the run continued to 16-12. A long, long rally went UCSD's way ending 16-14. The teams played sideout volleyball for a while until the Tritons got one on serve to close to within 21-20 at UCLA's last timeout. They got their point on serve back with a UCSD net violation. UCLA reached match point at 24-21. The Tritons sided out to 24-22, and for some reason the UCLA commentators sounded really nervous. No matter — the Triton server on the next ball went way long.
#5 UCLA d. #13 UC San Diego (25-10, 33-31, 25-22)
That's got to be the end of UCSD in the national rankings, hasn't it? The loss drops them to 4-8 overall and 2-6 in the MPSF. C'mon voters, there's more than just one conference.
Ten aces on the night for the Bruins against sixteen errors, which is outstanding serving for them. The Bruins are looking awfully good, but even after a 3-set sweep that featured a 15-point swing in one, I can't help but be struck that there's just not a lot of difference between the haves and the have nots in college volleyball this season. What a ride it will be to the end.
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