The players were spending more time on the sidelines than usual – on the sidelines making point-saving digs, that is – during Wednesday’s men’s volleyball match between UCLA and UC Irvine. Players from both teams were hustling to make saves over the press tables and by team benches. But the most spectacular save came when Bruin Marcin Jagoda went around the first row of press tables and into the first row of the stands to save a key point for UCLA – a point that would help the Bruins win the match-clinching fourth game of their 3-1 (27-30, 30-27, 30-23, 30-28) victory. “When I hit it up, I thought it was going out,” sophomore outside hitter Damien Scott said. “But Jagoda somehow ran it down. It was an awesome effort.” Jagoda’s save sparked a Bruin run. In the fourth game, UCLA was down 18-14 before winning four straight points to tie the game at 18-18. But earlier in the match, the Bruins needed a different spark – this was even more unlikely. UCLA (18-4, 12-4 MPSF) was getting all it could take from a UC Irvine (8-15, 4-12) team having a subpar year. The Bruins lost the first game, narrowly won the second, and were losing 20-15 in the third. UCLA coach Al Scates made a substitution, and put seldom-used Scott into the game. Scott made an immediate impact, as the Bruins won eight of the next nine points and were aided by several key digs and passes by Scott. His serving helped UCLA finish off the Anteaters in the third game – the Bruins won the final seven points of the game on Scott’s serve. “Damien Scott was fantastic,” Scates said. “He dug, passed and blocked well. He had a couple of good touches on the ball, too.” Scott was used so rarely before Wednesday’s match that he didn’t even always suit up. Only 12 players can be in uniform for a match, and Scates has 23 players on his roster. “If Scott hadn’t been suited up, we wouldn’t have won the match,” Scates said.
MATCHDAY STRATEGY: Efforts like Scott’s, Jagoda’s and J.T. Wenger’s team-high 18 kills helped the Bruins finish off the Anteaters. But the Bruins got off to a rocky start the first two games. Beau Peters had started at setter for UCLA, but was pulled early in the first game. In less than half of a game, Peters was called on a mishandled ball violation three times. Scates believed that referee Kim Pickering was making the calls because there was spin on the ball – something Peters does naturally in his sets. Dennis Gonzalez, who played his second match since coming back from a strained quadricep injury, took Peters’ place and set the Bruins to victory. “For the world’s best setters, the balls spin a little,” Scates said. “Three calls was too much for me.” Scates also kept regular starter Steve Klosterman on the bench until the start of the second game. Scates benched the freshman opposite because he has gotten off to slow starts all year long. Klosterman didn’t respond to Scates’ strategy, as he only hit .278 for the match. Despite all of the unusual strategy Scates had to use, the win was huge for the Bruins, who do not play another match until March 30 against USC at Pauley Pavilion.
MPSF UPDATE: With six matches left in the MPSF schedule, Wednesday’s win keeps UCLA (12-4 MPSF) at third place in the standings, half a game behind No. 2 Long Beach State (12-3) and three games back in the loss column behind No. 1 BYU (15-1). The Bruins hope to host at least part of the MPSF Tournament. The top four teams in the standings get to host first-round matches, and the top team in the MPSF gets to host the semifinals and championship. “We have to get home-court advantage, at least for the first round,” Scates said. UCLA is two games ahead of both Hawai’i (10-6) and Cal State Northridge (9-5), who are tied for fourth place. BYU comes to Pauley Pavilion for two matches from April 8 through 9.