The Bruins were pushed to the limit in their first bout with a ranked opponent, but they managed to come out with a win.
No. 2 UCLA men’s volleyball (3-0) beat No. 10 Princeton (0-3) in five sets by scores of 25-17, 26-24, 33-35, 16-25 and 15-10 in Princeton, New Jersey, at the Dillon Gymnasium.
The Bruins claimed the first two sets and as a team hit for .500 and .560, respectively. Freshman outside hitter and opposite Cole Ketrzynski picked up 12 of his match-high 17 kills in the opening two sets en route to a .500 hitting percentage in the match.
Ketrzynski said the team’s ability to move the ball well allowed him to get easy kills.
“We passed really well as a team,” Ketrzynski said. “I got a lot of open looks with little to no blocks.”
After playing one set in each of the first two matches, Ketrzynski played in all five against the Tigers. Coach John Speraw said starting Kerzynski was the result of having a deep roster.
“We’ve got a lot of nice depth on this team,” Speraw said. “Throughout the course of this trip, we’ve had a lot of opportunities to take a look at a lot of different guys. I was really pleased with (Kerzynski’s) play.”
UCLA had 10 chances to sweep Princeton, but it wound up dropping the third set 35-33. The match was tied at 33, but back-to-back attacking errors by freshman outside hitter Alex Knight and Kerzynski allowed the Tigers to clinch the set.
Speraw said serving was the reason the Bruins didn’t close out the set after losing five of those opportunities because of service errors.
“Do I think serving was the issue why we didn’t close out (the third) set? I think that’s probably right,” Speraw said. “We had 35 service errors in the entire match. That’s the most errors I’ve ever had in my career of (coaching).”
The Bruins are averaging 7.4 service errors per set throughout their first three games. Speraw said the serving issues can be fixed with practice and a change in mentality.
“The serving thing is a training thing,” Speraw said. “It’s a philosophy thing. It’s an ‘Us being definitive with what everyone’s role is on the team.’ It’s understanding how to truly be a one-point player.”
Senior outside hitter Austin Matautia had three service errors of his own and led UCLA with six attacking errors after only accumulating four total in the first two matches. Four of his six attacking errors against the Tigers came in the third and fourth sets, but he said bad defense and a lack of momentum were the reasons why the Bruins dropped those sets.
“In the third set, we just needed to cover a little better,” Matautia said. “In the fourth set, they were amped up; they won the third set so they came out firing.”
UCLA started the fifth set on a 5-0 run before clinching the set and match 15-10. Senior middle blocker Daenan Gyimah led the Bruins with five kills in the set, and he finished the game with 14 kills while hitting .458. Through three games, Gyimah leads the team with 31 kills.
UCLA will continue its stretch of road games Jan. 17, against UC San Diego at the Rimac Arena.
