LONG BEACH — Before the UCLA men’s volleyball team took the court on Thursday afternoon for its NCAA semifinal, the Bruins were already a man down.
Grant Sloane rolled his ankle on a jump serve during warmups and the junior outside hitter was forced to watch as the top-seeded Bruins took on fourth-seeded UC Irvine in the biggest match of the season.
Sloane might have inadvertently provided the extra bit of motivation his teammates needed in the 22-25, 25-20, 25-16, 18-25, 15-12 victory at Long Beach State’s Walter Pyramid.
“To see Grant go down, I think we kind of bonded with that,” UCLA outside hitter Merrick McHenry said. “We had a quick chat and said, ‘Do it for Grant,’ and I think that showed.”
The Bruins (25-5) will get a chance to defend their national championship on Saturday afternoon against the winner of the second semifinal between second-seeded Long Beach State and third-seeded Grand Canyon.
Ethan Champlin had 19 kills, Cooper Robinson had 11 kills and McHenry finished with 10 as the Bruins hit .404 as a team, better than their nation-leading .370 mark on the season.
“Incredible volleyball match,” UCLA coach John Speraw said. “You saw so many significant swings.”
Hilir Henno had 22 kills and three blocks to lead the Anteaters (20-11). Nolan Flexen contributed 13 kills for UCI, which hit .303 as a team.
“He’s the greatest player I’ve ever played with,” Flexen said of Henno, who was named the AVCA National Player of the Year on Wednesday. “I’ve had the honor of learning from him. I’ve learned so much from this guy. He’s an incredible teammate, on and off the court.”
Irvine suffered a key loss early on as well.
Akhil Tangutur injured his knee after colliding with one of the posts during the first set and did not return.
“Got thrown a curveball early when Akhil went down,” UCI coach David Kniffin said. “I thought we responded well to that.”
The Bruins appeared rusty at the start, making errant passes on the first two serves by the Anteaters and UCLA trailed for the rest of the opening set.
The Anteaters reached set point on a service error by Connor Campbell and then won it on the Bruins’ seventh service error of the opening frame.
The Bruins came back to win the second set after UCI erased four three-point deficits before tying it at 15-all.
A service error and a combined block by Champlin and McHenry put UCLA back up by two, and a kill by Ido David moved the Bruins to set point before they won it on a hitting error by Flexen.
UCLA got out to a 6-3 head start in the third set before UCI came back to take leads of 9-8 and 13-12.
Related Articles
Long Beach State men’s volleyball sweeps Belmont Abbey to reach NCAA semifinals
UC Irvine men’s volleyball sweeps Penn State to reach NCAA semifinals
UCLA men’s volleyball opens NCAA Tournament with Fort Valley State sweep
UCLA, Long Beach State are top seeds for NCAA men’s volleyball tournament
Long Beach State tops UC Irvine for Big West men’s volleyball title
The Bruins then reeled off six straight points, two on kills by McHenry and three by Robinson. UCLA finished the set by scoring the final four points, getting to game point on an off-speed kill by Rowan and winning it 25-16 on a kill by Champlin off the UCI block
UCLA trailed 11-10 in the fourth set before UCI scored three in a row, capped by an ace from Maxim Grigoriev. After a service error by Grigoriev, the Anteaters reeled off another three straight points to extend their lead to 17-11.
The set eventually ended on back-to-back hitting errors by McHenry and Robinson.
The deciding set featured three early lead changes. A service error by Grigoriev gave the Bruins a 13-11 lead and McHenry brought it to set point with his 10th kill of the match.
Champlin then ended the match when his kill went off the UCI block and out of bounds.
“I knew it was coming to me. I was just trying to pick what shot to go with,” Champlin said. “Whatever one I did worked, so I’m just happy that it went down and could seal it out for the team.”
Leave a Reply