UCLA
Pepperdine
MVB Defeats Waves; Finish 2nd in MPSF
April 10, 2016 | Men's Volleyball
The No. 4 UCLA men's volleyball team defeated No. 6 Pepperdine in four sets on Saturday evening in Pauley Pavilion before over 2,000 fans on a night the program honored the 1976, 1996 and 2006 Bruin NCAA championship teams. Scores of the match were 25-18, 21-25, 25-16, 25-23. With the win, the Bruins moved up into second place in the MPSF, based on tiebreakers, and will host No. 7 seed Hawai'i next Saturday, April 16, in a league quarterfinal match.
Jake Arnitz led the way for the Bruins on Saturday night with 18 kills (.483). He totaled six kills in the first set alone while hitting at a .857 clip. Hagen Smith added a career-high tying nine kills for the match (.692). Oliver Martin (.800) and Mitch Stahl (.692) added eight and nine kills, respectively. JT Hatch recorded three aces while Micah Ma'a and Jackson Bantle each had two. UCLA out hit the Waves .420 to .223 and out blocked the visitors 8.5 to 2.5.
Pepperdine jumped to a 1-4 lead in set one before a kill by Arnitz tied the score at 5-all. Neither team could pull away until UCLA grabbed a 14-13 lead on a kill by Smith. An ace from Hatch and a kill by Arnitz made it 16-13. Back-to-back kills from Ma'a made it 20-16 and UCLA went on to win 25-19.
In set two, neither team could gain the early momentum until Pepperdine surged to an 8-11 edge. The Bruins cut the gap to one at 11-12 and 12-13, but could not get the lead. The Waves built the margin up to 17-23 before settling for a 21-25 win.
In set three, UCLA broke an 8-all tie with a couple of points on a service error and a Stahl kill. A pair of Pepperdine errors left UCLA on top 15-11. Two Hatch kills and a Ma'a/Stahl block lifted UCLA into a 19-12 advantage. Back-to-back aces from Ma'a made it 22-13 and the Bruins went on to post a 25-16 win. The Waves hit just .038 for the set.
Both teams held leads in the early going of set four. The score was then level at points 8,9, 10, 11 and 12. The Waves put two points together to go up 12-14, but UCLA quickly knotted the score at 14-all. The score was then even at points 16, 17, 19, 20, and 21. A Ma'a kill and a Wave error made it 23-21 for the Bruins. Hatch hit off hands for a 24-22 edge. Smith blasted down the line for the match point at 25-23.
UCLA improved its record to 23-5 on the season. The last time it won more than 22 matches in a season was in 2006 when it captured 26 on the way to NCAA Title No. 19.
MPSF Playoff Pairings - Apr. 16 (Top Four Seeds Host)
No. 1 BYU v. No. 8 UC Irvine or Cal Baptist (late match) No. 2 UCLA v. No. 7 Hawai'i
No. 3 Long Beach St. v. No. 6 Pepperdine
No. 4 Stanford v. No. 5 UCSB
