UCLA
Princeton
Volleyball Tames Tigers in Three
January 26, 2015 | Men's Volleyball
The ninth-ranked men's volleyball team upped its record to 4-2 on the season with a straight-set win over Princeton in a non-league match held in the John Wooden Center on Sunday night. Freshman J. T. Hatch led the way for UCLA with 11 kills and a.733 hitting percentage. Fellow freshman Christian Hessenauer added nine kills, an ace and three blocks assists.
Princeton held the early lead in set one before UCLA evened things up at 7-7. The Bruins took a 9-7 lead on an Eric Matheis ace only to see the visitors rally back to tie the score at 9, 10 and 11. Eric Sprague and Jake Arnitz helped the Bruins take control and widen the margin out to 15-11. The Tigers closed to 22-18, but UCLA scored the final three points of the set to win 25-18. The Bruins hit .611 in the set.
A Hatch kill helped UCLA open up a 7-5 edge in set two. Princeton came back to tie the score at 15. The Bruins responded with a kill by Arnitz and an ace from Sprague to claim a 17-15 lead. Another ace by Matheis made it 19-16 and the Bruins went on to register a 25-21 win.
UCLA's only lead in the early going in set three came at 5-4. Princeton answered for a 6-9 Tiger advantage. Mitch Stahl then got the Bruins back in the set with a kill and a block. A third ace from Matheis leveled the score at 10-all. The lead then see-sawed back and forth until tied at 20. Hatch hit through the block for a 21-20 lead and Hessenauer's block and kill made it 23-20. A Stahl ace made it 24-20 and the Bruins came away with the set and match 25-21.
Arnitz finished with eight kills. Stahl had four kills, an ace and three blocks. Matheis recorded three aces, 32 set assists and a couple of digs. Jackson Bantle was credited with nine digs.
UCLA now dives into MPSF play on Tuesday against sixth-ranked Pepperdine (7-1, 3-1) and versus 12th-ranked Stanford (3-4, 2-2) on Thursday in Pauley Pavilion. First serve for the match with the Waves is 7:05 p.m. The match against the Cardinal begins at 5:30 and will be played in the John Wooden Center. Both matches are slated for broadcast by the Pac-12 Networks.
