Match Stats
- No. 6 UCLA 3, Cal Baptist 2 (25-23, 23-25, 25-15, 23-25, 20-18)
- UCLA moves to 17-7, 10-6 MPSF; Cal Baptist falls to 7-19, 2-14 MPSF
- Riverside, Calif.
- Attendance: 625
- Box Score
No. 6 UCLA won its seventh straight match, but it wasn’t easy at Cal Baptist fought til the end in a five-set thriller. The Bruins won the match 25-23, 23-25, 25-15, 23-25, 20-18 to move to 10-6 in league action heading into the final week of the regular season.
UCLA outhit the Lancers .252 to .200 and served up 12 aces to their three, but Cal Baptist stayed in the match with 19 blocks (to the Bruins’ 10).
Junior outside hitter Jake Arnitz led all hitters with a season-best 21 kills, while senior middle blocker Mitch Stahl and senior outside Michael Fisher also reached double-digits with 11 apiece. Stahl put up a team-best five blocks and served up three aces, while Fisher hit at a team-leading .429 clip. Junior outside JT Hatch pulled up a match-high 13 digs.
Junior outside Rohit Paul led the Lancers with 14 kills, while Kevin Vaz chipped in nine. Three other players managed five kills apiece: junior middle Enrique Garcia, senior middle Caleb Miller and senior outside Luis Palos. Vaz posted 11 digs and four blocks, while Miller hit at a .571 clip and turned in a team-best eight blocks. Garcia contributed seven blocks. Senior setter Cody Jackson managed a double-double with 33 assists and 10 digs, to go with his four blocks and team-best two aces.
Cal Baptist took an early 5-2 lead in the decisive fifth set as Garcia got a kill and a solo stuff. UCLA scored six of the next seven to go up 8-6 at the changeover. Back to back stuff by Micah Ma’a and Stahl capped the rally. Down 11-9, the Lancers scored four straight including two kills and a block by Paul, to take a 13-11 lead. A kill and a block by the Bruins knotted the score at 13. A block by Garcia and Jackson gave CBU the first match-point chance at 14-13. The Lancers would have four more opportunities to close it out at 15-14, 16-15, 17-16 and 18-17, but could not finish the task as UCLA answered each kill with one of its own. A kill by Fisher made it 18-all. An ace by Stahl and a Lancer hitting error prevented the upset at 20-18.
The lead changed hands six times in the opening stanza. The Lancers took the lead at 11-10 and built the advantage to three at 17-14. UCLA played from behind, eventually tying the score at 20-all and going up 21-20 on a block by Stahl and Hagen Smith. The teams tied at 21 and 22, but an ace by Dylan Missry put the Bruins on the hill at 24-22. A kill by Stahl sealed the comeback win.
Cal Baptist hit at a .444 clip in a 25-23 Set 2 win. The Lancers jumped out to a 12-6 lead with help from six Bruin errors. A pair of kill by Stahl and two more by Oliver Martin brought UCLA to a tie at 16-all. The teams traded points over the next eight serves to make it 20-all. A kill by Vaz and a stuff by Jackson Burge put Cal Baptist up 23-20. A service error made it 24-22 Lancers, before a kill by Garcia ended the stanza.
UCLA outhit CBU .364 to -.067 in Set 3. The Bruins led 15-8 at the midway point, including three aces and two blocks as well as four Lancer miscues. UCLA built the lead to 10 at 20-10 and never looked back.
The Bruins outhit .323 to .259 in Set 4, but could not end the match. Cal Baptist owned a 15-10 lead thanks to kills by four different players and a trio of blocks. Three straight kills by Arnitz and one by Jackson Bantle made it a one-point game at 15-14. A pair of Jackson aces pushed the Lancer lead by to five at 19-14. Trailing 21-16, UCLA rallied behind three Fisher putaways to knot the score at 23. A kill by Palos and a bad set by the Bruins clinched CBU the win and forced a fifth set.
PRESS RELEASES
Courtesy: UCLA Athletics
The No. 6-ranked men’s volleyball team won a hard-fought five set decision at Cal Baptist in an MSPF match played on Saturday night in Riverside. Scores of the contest were 25-23, 23-25, 25-15, 23-25, 20-18. Jake Arnitz connected for a season-high 21 kills to lead the Bruins attack. It was the seventh straight win for UCLA which tied its longest win streak of the season and improved to 17-7 overall and 10-6 in league action. Next up are a couple of league matches on Friday (5 p.m.) and Saturday (7p.m.) against No. 4-ranked Hawai’i (22-4, 12-4) in the Wooden Center to close out the regular season.
A series of errors put the Bruins down 1-3 to start set five. An Arnitz kill moved UCLA within one at 2-3, but Cal Baptist scored the next two points for a 2-5 advantage. A couple of errors and another kill by Arnitz made it 5-6. The Bruins came back to go in front 8-6 lead on a pair of blocks by Micah Ma’a and Mitch Stahl and another CBU error. UCLA went ahead 10-8 following a kill by Jackson Bantle. Two kills and Bruin attack errors put CBU back in front 11-13. A Michael Fisher kill and a Ma’a block evened the score at 13-all. UCLA then fought off five match points with a service error and multiple kills by Arnitz and Fisher. Stahl gave UCLA a look at match point with an ace for a 19-18 lead. A CBU attack error ended the battle at 20-18.
Set one was tightly contested through a 12-all tie. Cal Baptist then ran out to a 14-17 lead. Christian Hessenauer‘s kill and Stahl’s ace pulled the Bruins to within one. A block by Oliver Martin and Dylan Missry tied the score at 20. The score was then level up at 21 and 22. UCLA grabbed the lead after a Lancer service error. An ace by Missry took it to set point and Stahl’s kill finished off the set in a 25-23 win. UCLA hit .294 with Arnitz and Martin totaling four kills each. Stahl recorded an ace in his 16th straight match.
UCLA fell behind 3-8 and 6-12 in set two. An ace by Hagen Smith cut the margin to 8-12 and another ace from Stahl made it 12-14. The Bruins tied it at 16-all on a kill by Missry. The score was then even at points 17, 18, 19 and 20. CBU tallied the next three points and went on to a 23-25 win. UCLA hit .217 for the set.
A pair of aces by Jackson Bantle helped the Bruins forge an 8-4 lead to begin set three. Michael Fisher came off the bench to give the Bruins a lift and his kill made it 14-8. Kills from Martin and then Bantle upped the margin to 17-9. Another Fisher kill made it 22-12 and then an Arnitz swing finished off the set for a 25-15 victory. UCLA hit .364 for the set to -.067 for the Lancers.
CBU launched out to a 1-5 lead in set four. The Bruins cut the gap to 6-8 and then 9-11 after kills by Fisher. Ma’a came on to set and assisted on three of the next four kills, two by Arnitz and one by Bantle, which made it 14-15. Another run by the Lancers pushed the margin back to 14-19. The Bruins sliced the deficit to 21-22 after a pair of Fisher kills. UCLA evened the score at 23 on a block by Hessenauer and Arnitz, but CBU tallied the next two points for the set win.
Fisher finished with a season-high 11 kills and hit .429 for match. Stahl also added 11 kills (.389), three aces and five blocks. JT Hatch added 13 digs from the libero position. UCLA outhit the Lancers .252 to .200 for the match and won the battle at the service line 12 aces to three.
Courtesy: Cal Baptist Athletics
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Fresh off an epic five-set upset over No. 15-ranked UC Santa Barbara on Thursday, California Baptist University looked to do it again Saturday night against sixth-ranked UCLA. The Lancers took the Bruins to five sets, coming up just short in a 3-2 loss (25-23, 23-25, 25-15, 23-25, 20-18). CBU drops to 7-19 overall, 2-14 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. UCLA improves to 17-7 on the year and 10-6 in conference.
Rohit Paul led the Lancers with 14 kills on the night, boasting a .387 hitting clip, while Kevin Vaz added nine kills and a team-high 11 digs. CBU’s blocking game was on point, finishing with 19 blocks – compared to the Bruins’ 10. Caleb Miller finished with eight blocks, while also boasting a .571 hitting percentage. Enrique de Diego Garcia finished with seven blocks, while Cody Jackson had five to go with 10 digs defensively.
After dropping the first set in a close 25-23 battle, CBU bounced back with a 25-23 set win of its own. The Lancers out-hit the Bruins .444 to .217 to even the match at 1-1. CBU opened the frame on a 4-1 run off two UCLA errors and kills from Miller and Paul. The three-point lead doubled as Miller, Garcia and Vaz teamed up to stuff a Bruin attempt to put the Lancers up 12-6. UCLA clawed its way back into the game, tying it at 16-16, but the Lancers were determined to even the match up. A Vaz kill followed by a Jackson Burge solo block put CBU within two points of seeing that come to fruition. The Bruins stayed alive briefly, but Garcia put the set out of reach with a powerful kill down the middle to give CBU the 25-23 win.
Momentum shifted in the third as UCLA jumped out in front and never looked back to take a 2-1 lead in the match heading into the fourth set.
Once again, however, determination kicked in as the Lancers opened on a 5-1 run to set the tone early. Paul sparked the run with a sideout kill before teaming up with Garcia and Jackson for a block. Two Bruin errors sandwiched a UCLA kill to give CBU the 5-1 upper hand. The Lancers grabbed some separation with another combo block – Vaz, Miller and Luis Palos – to put the home team in the driver’s seat, 10-6. UCLA made things interesting by tying the set up 23-23, but CBU wouldn’t let the Bruins get out of Van Dyne that easily and took the game 25-23 to force a fifth and deciding set.
Like it did on Thursday, the fifth set took extra points for a decision to be made, putting fans on the edge of their seats. CBU reached match point five times, but couldn’t quite get the final dagger in. UCLA snuck away with the 20-18 set victory, however, to take the match 3-2.
The Lancers have just three matches left, heading to USC on Thursday at 7:00 p.m., before hosting the Trojans at home two days later, also at 7:00 p.m.
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