The University of California, Los Angeles men’s volleyball team won a 3-0 match against UC Merced on April 9. The victory marked the Bruins’ fifteenth sweep of the season, with set scores of 25-15, 25-21, and 25-17.
This win is significant as it keeps UCLA at the top of their conference standings and demonstrates the team’s depth, with fifteen players seeing action during the match. The Bruins improved their record to 22 wins and one loss overall and nine wins to one loss in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play.
Zach Rama led UCLA with eight kills on twelve attempts. Sean Kelly was perfect offensively, scoring seven kills without an error. As a team, UCLA achieved a .448 hitting percentage for the night. Setters Andrew Rowan and Trent Taliaferro combined for twenty-nine assists. On defense, UCLA limited UC Merced to a .185 hitting percentage; Kaleb Cole led UC Merced with seven kills.
In the first set, UCLA built an early lead with contributions from Rama and Micah Wong Diallo. The second set saw several lineup changes as Grayson Bradford, Filippos Chrysostomou, Luca Curci, Brogan Glenn, Christopher Hersh, and Taliaferro entered the match. Key plays from Wong Diallo and Chrysostomou helped secure that set for UCLA.
During the third set, strong performances by Chrysostomou and Curci gave UCLA an early advantage that they maintained until winning both the set and match following a service error by UC Merced.
Looking ahead, UCLA will face UC Merced again on Friday evening for another matchup between these teams.
