UCLA men’s volleyball opens NCAA Tournament with Fort Valley State sweep
LONG BEACH — The UCLA men’s volleyball team took its first step toward defending its NCAA title with a three-set victory against Fort Valley State in a quarterfinal match at the Walter Pyramid.
The top-seeded Bruins strung together wins of 25-14, 25-15 and 25-15 against the eighth-seeded Wildcats, the first HBCU institution to qualify in tournament history.
UCLA (24-5) will play the winner of fourth-seeded UC Irvine and fifth-seeded Penn State in the semifinals Thursday.
The Bruins were coming off a five-set loss to Grand Canyon in the championship match of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation on April 20 at UCLA, which ended their 12-match winning streak.
“It worked out they were able to lose and still move on and now that’s over,” UCLA coach John Speraw said. “Now you’ve got to win and move on, and so I think there’s always a little added extra pressure there too. I thought we handled it pretty well. I thought there was a little bit of nerves.”
The Bruins played Fort Valley State (17-9) in the Wildcats’ inaugural season two years ago in Fort Valley, Ga., and UCLA won in three sets. The teams met again in their season opener in January and the Bruins also swept, but Speraw said the Wildcats have come a long way in a short time.
“A few years ago, it wasn’t a good volleyball match and I think, now, we were all in,” Speraw said. “You can see the scores, and they made us earn every single point.”
Fort Valley State held a 10-8 lead in the second game, but the Bruins scored eight of the next nine points behind strong serves from Guy Genis.
Andrew Rowan then served five straight winners to put UCLA up 22-12.
“It’s always tough to get out there the first time,” Speraw said. “No matter who you’re playing, there’s always nerves. It’s always a new environment, a new feeling.”
UCLA finished with an attack percentage of .521, much better than its season average of .370, which led the nation.
Merrick McHenry and Ido David each had seven kills without an error, while Ethan Champlin had a team-high eight kills with two errors.
“It’s probably the biggest correlation between winning and losing is offensive hitting percentages,” Speraw said. “I think everybody hit real well, so it was a team effort, in that regard.”