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Dennis Gonzalez recaptured the starting setter position with his weekend performance at BYU.

It took eight matches, but junior Dennis Gonzalez finally regained his position as the starting setter of the UCLA men’s volleyball team.

Against BYU on Saturday, Gonzalez made his first start of the year after losing the position to freshman Gaby Acevedo in the fall.

“Dennis has been getting better every day in practice and was performing well in the limited chances he got to play,” UCLA coach Al Scates said. “I gave him a chance to start and he played very well, so as of right now I plan on starting him in Wednesday’s match.”

Before this past weekend, Gonzalez had recorded a total of only 23 assists in six games, but in the two matches against BYU, Gonzalez had 75 assists while playing in all seven games.

“On Saturday, I played the best I had all year,” Gonzalez said. “Everything just came together. I have been working hard and improving each day in practice, but I also did well because I just became more determined to be better.”

Gonzalez may only be the first of several players to move up into the starting lineup.

“The entire second team is getting better,” Scates said. “The competition is really close between the starters and the replacements. I don’t even think of the second team as team No. 2 anymore. They’re team 1B.”

ALTITUDE ADJUSTMENTS: After a dismal serving effort on Friday, the Bruins stepped up on Saturday and had one of their best serving performances of the year. The altitude at BYU, located in Provo, Utah, is the highest of any of the MPSF schools, and the volleyball tends to travel three feet farther on serves, making the transition difficult for visiting teams.

“There were a lot of service errors in the first match because of the high altitude,” Scates said. “The noisy crowd also made it very tough to serve well. When it’s so loud, it’s easier for the players to revert back to serving like they would at sea level.”

Not wanting to repeat the 22 service errors the team hit in Friday’s loss, UCLA utilized seniors Jonathan Acosta, Kris Kraushaar and Allan Vince as float servers in Saturday’s match.

The result was an obvious improvement, as the Bruins served seven aces and only 10 errors.

“The way we served was different in the second match, and clearly it was much better,” Kraushaar said. “We were more comfortable with the high altitude, and once we started winning, the crowd got much quieter, which also made it easier to serve.”

STILL ON TOP: With their split against the No. 3 Cougars, the Bruins maintained their position atop the MPSF rankings.

If UCLA had lost both games, the Bruins would have likely had to travel to Provo again for the MPSF playoffs in the beginning of May, a trip UCLA definitely does not want to make.

“With 6,000 screaming fans, Brigham Young has a tremendous home-court advantage,” Scates said. “They are a much easier team to beat if they are not at home.”