Men's VolleyballMen's Volleyball
UCLA Athletics

Bruins Win in Four at Cal Baptist

Men's Volleyball

The No. 12 men's volleyball team posted a four-set MPSF road win at Cal Baptist on Thursday night.

Box Score

UCLA took down Cal Baptist in four sets in an MPSF match played on Thursday night in Riverside. Scores of the contest were 25-19, 25-20, 20-25, 25-23. UCLA is now 11-8 on the season and 7-8 in league action. Coach John Speraw came away with his 50th win as UCLA's head coach.

Mitch Stahl led the way for the Bruins with 11 kills and a .667 hitting percentage, both season-high marks. His 14.0 points was also a season high. Eric Sprague added nine kills, eight blocks and hit .400.He also totaled his first career block solo and his seven block assists were a career-high.  J.T. Hatch recorded eight kills and season-high tying five blocks.

UCLA opened up a 6-3 lead in set one after a kill by Jake Arnitz. CBU rallied to even the score at 10 and then 12. An ace from Hatch ignited a three-point run by the Bruins for a 15-12 edge. CBU closed to 17-16, but UCLA pulled away for a 25-19 win. The Bruins outhit the Lancers .389 to .000.

In set two, UCLA moved out to a 3-1 lead. CBU came back to tie the score at 3-all. The Bruins spurted out to a 9-5 advantage on an ace by Eric Matheis. UCLA led 10-7, when another run pushed the margin out to 15-7. The Bruins led 18-9 after an ace from Hatch. A Christian Hessenauer ace made it 24-15 and a Sprague kill ended the set at 25-20. UCLA hit .409 for the set.

UCLA enjoyed leads of 5-3 and 9-6 in set three. The Lancers came back to tie the score at 9 and after a stretch of five straight points led 9-11. A Stahl ace made it 10-11, but CBU began to separate. The Lancers led 12-16 and 13-18 before taking the set 20-25 after hitting .360 and putting down five service aces.

In the fourth set, UCLA jumped in front 3-1 on a Sprague kill. The score was then tied from points 6 to 12. A Oliver Martin ace and a Sprague block lifted UCLA into a 14-12 lead. The score was then even from points 14 to 17. After a Stahl kill and a CBU attack error, UCLA led 19-17 and held on from there for a 25-23 verdict. Stahl's 11th kill ended the match.

UCLA will now prepare for a Saturday night match at USC in the Galen Center. The Pac-12 Networks will broadcast the match beginning at 7 p.m. The Bruins are home on Monday night at 7 p.m. against top-ranked Hawai'i.