WESTWOOD, Calif. — No. 8 BYU men’s volleyball put up a fight Saturday night against the No. 1 UCLA Bruins, winning the first set and holding leads late in the third and fourth sets, but eventually falling 3-1 (21-25, 25-17, 25-23, 27-25).
The Cougars led 22-20 late in the third set and looked primed to take a 2-1 lead and held a 24-23 lead with a set point in the fourth set to tie the match, but the Bruins would step up in clutch time and win both sets.
BYU ends the regular season with a 20-11 overall record, 7-7 in MPSF play, and will now head into tournament play this week at home as the MPSF hosts. Seeding and the tournament bracket will be announced on Sunday.
Connor Oldani led BYU in Saturday night’s match with 16 kills. Trent Moser added 13. Cole Hauser came in off the bench with four kills, starting the third and fourth sets.
AJ Cottle led the Cougar block with six total.
Tyler Herget added 41 assists.
Set One
The Cougars and Bruins started out the match with a back-and-forth battle, with ties registered at every point from 1-1 to 12-12. At that point, UCLA built the match’s first two-point lead at 15-13 going into the media timeout.
After the media timeout, the Cougars started to gain some control, going on a 4-2 run to tie the match at 16-16 and later a 6-1 run to go up 22-19, punctuated by back-to-back massive Hauser aces.
The Cougars won the set on a combo block from Herget, Moser and Gavin Chambers to make it 25-21.
There were 16 ties and six lead changes in the first set.
BYU hit .733 in the set, without a single hitting error. Oldani, Moser and Cottle all hit 1.000.
Set Two
In the second set, UCLA got out to early leads of 5-3 and 8-4, but back-to-back Oldani kills brought the Cougars within one at 11-10.
The Bruins then went on a 9-1 run, with two BYU timeouts to try and quell the UCLA momentum.
The teams traded points late in the set, with BYU highlights including a Herget ace and a big Cottle kill from the middle, and UCLA took the set 25-17.
Set Three
Kills from Moser and Hauser got BYU out to a 4-2 lead in the third set.
UCLA battled back, and like in the first set, the teams racked up ties and lead changes, with six ties by the time it got to 7-7.
Like in the first set, the Bruins went on a run before the media timeout to make it 15-12.
Once again BYU battled back to a tie at 18-18 with kills from Oldani and Moser and a smart play by Hauser at the net to force a UCLA error.
A block by Cottle gave the Cougars their first lead since 5-4 at 20-19 and forced a UCLA timeout. BYU went up 22-20 and UCLA called its second timeout.
The second timeout would prove to be effective, as despite another Hauser kill to make it 23-23, the Bruins ended the set on a 5-1 run to win it 25-23.
Set Four
The Cougars appeared unfazed after squandering the late lead in the third set, building a quick 9-6 lead in the fourth, with contributions all around the court, including Moser, Oldani and Houser kills along wide Chambers and Cottle blocks.
UCLA called a timeout at 9-6 and once again battled back, with ties registered at every point from 11-11 to 25-25. The Cougars had a set point at 24-23 after a Moser kill, but the Bruins put together two straight points to take the set 27-25 and win the match.
Up Next
The MPSF Tournament will start Wednesday at the Smith Fieldhouse in Provo and run through Saturday. Seeds and the tournament bracket will be released Sunday.