The University of California, Los Angeles men’s volleyball team swept Stanford in a conference match on Mar. 27. The Bruins won in straight sets with scores of 25-17, 25-23, and 25-20.
This win keeps UCLA undefeated for the season at 19-0 overall and extends their conference record to 6-0. Stanford now stands at an even record of 9-9 and experienced its first loss in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play.
Senior setter Andrew Rowan reached a milestone by surpassing the mark of 4,000 career assists during the match. He is only the second player from UCLA to achieve this feat in the rally scoring era that began in 2001. The other Bruin to do so was Rich Nelson, who finished his collegiate career with more than four thousand assists between 2001 and 2003.
UCLA’s offensive effort was led by middle blockers Cameron Thorne and Micah Wong Diallo with ten kills and eight kills respectively. The Bruins maintained a .373 hitting percentage as a team throughout the match.
The opening set saw UCLA take an early lead with a five-point run that included blocks from Wong Diallo and Sean Kelly as well as a service ace from David Decker. Though Stanford managed to tie at eleven points apiece, another strong run gave UCLA control for the rest of the set.
In subsequent sets, key plays such as service aces by Thorne and Decker along with timely kills from Zach Rama helped maintain momentum for UCLA. The third set ended with back-to-back kills by Rama securing both the sweep and another victory for the Bruins this season—their thirteenth sweep out of nineteen matches played so far.
UCLA will face Stanford again on Saturday night for their second matchup of the weekend.
