No. 7 Penn State men’s volleyball (4-2) suffered its second loss of the season to No. 1 UCLA (5-1) in a 3-0 sweep Saturday night in its second game in the First Point Collegiate Challenge in Austin, Texas. After suffering a sweep against Stanford, the Nittany Lions fell again against the Bruins.

Penn State struggled once again, recording a hitting percentage of .171 and 37 errors.

How It Happened

Penn State got off to a slow start as UCLA won the first two points of the game on its own service before Owen Rose notched a kill to make the score 2-1 in favor of UCLA. UCLA took advantage of Penn State’s service errors as it scored twice off those errors to make the score 4-2.

Each team went back and forth as three consecutive kills were recorded by both teams before John Kerr gave up an attack error to make it a 6-4 lead for UCLA. Kills became a huge factor in the first set, as six consecutive kills were recorded after the error by Kerr. This kill streak ended when UCLA’s Ido David earned a service ace to give the Bruins a 10-7 lead.

After Rose and Ido committed service errors, UCLA recorded consecutive kills by Sean McQuiggan and Ethan Champlin to make it 13-8 in favor of UCLA, which forced Penn State to take a timeout. After the timeout, McQuiggan earned another kill for UCLA to a six-point lead. This 3-0 run ended for the Bruins when Toby Ezeonu earned a kill for the Nittany Lions.

After the kill by Ezeonu, both teams earned a kill before Champlin gave up an attack error to decrease UCLA’s lead to four. UCLA kept putting the pressure on the Nittany Lions as it won four of the next five points to make a 19-12 lead with kills and errors committed by Penn State. The Bruins didn’t let the Nittany Lions decrease their lead, as UCLA increased its lead to eight points when Alex Knight recorded a kill to make it 22-14 in favor of UCLA.

After this, the Bruins got a little sloppy as the Nittany Lions went on a 3-0 run on errors committed by UCLA, but UCLA responded by winning the next two points to make it set point. The Nittany Lions scored the next three points before UCLA captured the first set off an error by Michael Valenzi.

The second set started 3-2 in favor of the Nittany Lions with the help of two UCLA attack errors and a kill recorded by Kerr. After this, the Bruins went on a 3-1 run to take a 5-4 lead in the second set. After an attack error by Champlin to make it a 6-6 tie, UCLA went on to score the next three points of the game with the help of three Penn State errors before a service error by Champlin ended this run to make it a 9-7 lead for UCLA.

This set got very tight as both teams went back and forth for the next ten points while the two-point lead for the Bruins stayed intact before a kill was recorded by Merrick McHenry to make it a 15-12 lead for UCLA heading into the media timeout.

Out of the break, UCLA came out firing as Champlin and McHenry recorded an ace and kill, which forced the Nittany Lions to take a timeout. After the timeout, UCLA recorded another kill by Knight to increase their lead to six points.

The Nittany Lions responded back by going on a 3-0 run with the help of a service error by UCLA and kills by Michal Kowal and Will Kuhns before a kill by Knight was recorded to make a 19-15 lead for UCLA.

Both teams exchanged scores with Penn State and UCLA scoring off a kill and service error. After that, UCLA went on another 3-0 run with the help of 2 kills and an attack error by Penn State to make it a 23-17 lead. After a service error by Knight, UCLA forced a set point when Kuhns committed a service error. The Nittany Lions saved one set point before an attack error by Kuhns gave a 2-0 set lead going into the third set.

Penn State got off to a fast start in the third set as they went on a 3-1 run. However, after the Nittany Lions made it a 4-2 lead, UCLA quickly scored off a kill and error to tie the set at 4-4. After the Nittany Lions scored off a service error by McQuiggan to make it a 5-4 lead, the Bruins went on a 6-2 run with four of those points coming off errors and two from kills.

After McHenry committed a service error for UCLA, the Bruins went on another run that consisted of two kills, an error by Valenzi, and an ace by David. Kuhns responded for the Nittany Lions by recording a kill and committing a service error after that to increase UCLA’s lead to five points heading into the media timeout.

Out of the media timeout, UCLA didn’t let its foot off the gas as it won three of the next four points, which forced the Nittany Lions to take a timeout. After the timeout, Penn State responded by recording a kill to decrease UCLA’s lead to six.

However, the Nittany Lions could not create any momentum after this as UCLA went on a 5-2 run, which consisted of four errors by Penn State and one kill by Zach Rama to make it a 23-14 lead. After the Nittany Lions scored off a service error by David Flores, UCLA earned match point when Rose committed a service error. It capitalized on match point with a kill by Rama, which completed the sweep for UCLA.

Takeaways

• The hitting woes for the Nittany Lions continued in this match, as they had a hitting percentage of .171 compared to UCLA’s .354. Toby Ezeonu was the only Nittany Lion to hit at .500.
• This was a lopsided loss for Penn State as it struggled to keep this match close in both sets as. UCLA won all the sets by five points or more.
• After going 2-0 in last year’s event, this year’s tournament was a different story for Penn State as it suffered back-to-back sweeps against No. 8 Stanford and No. 1 UCLA.

What’s Next?

Penn State will try to bounce back from consecutive defeats when it heads down to Columbus, Ohio, for a game against Ohio State at 6 p.m. on Thursday, January 25.