Ian ParishIan Parish
Don Liebig/ASUCLA

MVB Aces Eagles in Straight Sets

Men's Volleyball

Bruins host No. 13 Grand Canyon on Friday night.

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Box Score

The No. 4-ranked UCLA men's volleyball team registered a straight set win over No. 14 Concordia in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match played on Wednesday night in the John Wooden Center. Scores of the contest were 25-22, 25-15, 25-19. The Bruins improved their records to 18-5 overall and 6-2 in MPSF action while upping their home record to 12-1 with the victory. Christian Hessenauer led the way with a match-high 18 kills as UCLA outhit the Eagles .396 to .227.
 
Set one was a battle with neither team leading by more than two until the end. Concordia established the early edge at 4-6. UCLA came back to level the score at points 6 and 7 on kills by Dylan Missry. A spike by Jake Arnitz put UCLA in front 10-8. The visitors then grabbed leads of 12-14, 13-15 and 15-17. The Bruins battled to even the score at 17 after an ace from Missry. Another ace from Missry sent UCLA in front 18-17. A Hessenauer swing pushed the Bruins into a 22-21 advantage. Ian Parish connected for a 23-21 lead. Two straight kills from Hessenauer, who finished with seven in the set, ended the frame at 25-22.
 
In set two, UCLA ran out to a 10-4 margin after an ace from Arnitz. Concordia rallied to close to 11-9, but the Bruins opened the lead up after kills from Daenan Gyimah and Missry to make it 13-9.The Eagles sliced the deficit to two points again at 14-12 only to see UCLA answer with kills from Gyimah and Parish. Eric Matheis came on with UCLA up 20-15 and served out the set, recording a couple of aces along the way in a 25-15 win. UCLA hit .469, with just one error in 32 swings during the set.
 
UCLA broke a 5-all tie with a four-point run in set three thanks to kills from Arnitz and Hessenauer and a pair of aces from Micah Ma'a. The Bruins built the lead up to 16-10 after another Missry kill. Hessenauer's sixth kill of the set made it 18-13. Sam Kobrine delivered point 24 with a smash and the Bruins took home the match, 25-19, after an Eagle serving error. UCLA hit .500 for the set.
 
UCLA, which will host No. 13 Grand Canyon on Friday night at 7 p.m. in the Wooden Center, recorded nine service aces to one for Concordia. The Eagles won the block battle 4.5 to 2.0 over the Bruins.