LA JOLLA, Calif. - UC San Diego hung tough with No. 9 UCLA through much of the first two sets in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) men's volleyball contest Saturday night at RIMAC Arena, but was edged at the end in both en route to a 3-0 loss. Game scores were 25-22, 25-21 and 25-16.
The match featured 25 tie scores and 10 lead changes, with the second frame the closest at 14 ties.
With the result, UCSD is now 2-15 overall and 0-12 in the MPSF. UCLA improved to 9-6 overall and 5-6 in league play.
Tanner Syftestad again led the Tritons offensively, notching a match-high 11 kills alongside four digs and two blocks. José Carlos Martinez drew the start at setter for the first time since Jan. 16 at CSUN, and finished with 25 assists and three digs. Freshman Luke La Mont also began the match at outside hitter, and wound up with four kills, a team- and season-high six digs, and UCSD's only two service aces. Middle blocker Shayne Beamer contributed four kills and three block assists, while fellow sophomore Ian Colbert put together five kills, three digs and two blocks.
Jake Reeves and Eric Sprague collected 10 kills apiece for UCLA. Sprague hit .625 (10-0-16) without an attacking error, and added two aces and a match-high six blocks. Setter Hagen Smith had 36 assists, six digs and four block assists. Libero J.T. Hatch got to nine digs to lead all players. UCLA hit .390 (43-11-82) on the night.
The match saw a total of five triple blocks, with four by UCLA and one by UCSD.
La Mont's service aces came back-to-back to give the Tritons a 3-1 lead early in the opening game. Beamer and Syftestad combined to stuff Reeves and pull to within one at 10-9, and La Mont's kill leveled the score at 10-10. UCLA eventually was forced into the night's first timeout, suddenly down 13-11 following a run of six of seven points going to the home side. A big Beamer spike came in between a pair of kills from Syftestad at the end of that stretch.
Coming out of the break, the teams traded service errors and Colbert and Bryan Zhu (San Diego/Rancho Bernardo HS) teamed up for a denial on Christian Hessenauer and a 15-12 advantage. When Zhu handled the overpass for his only kill of the match at 18-15, that's when UCLA came alive. Two Reeves kills brought on UCSD's first timeout, with that run extending to five straight Bruin points on a third Reeves kill in succession, net ace by Mitch Stahl, and a triple block by Hessenauer, Reeves and Sprague. UCSD used its second and final timeout.
The Tritons weren't dead yet. Head coach Kevin Ring's expert defensive substitution brought freshman Alec Flowers into the fray to partner with Beamer as the two middles turned back Reeves for 20-20. Shortly after a final tie at 21-21, Sprague put away the overpass for a 23-21 UCLA lead, and the Bruins took it from there.
Midway through the second, a huge triple block by Colbert, Syftestad and Zhu broke a 13-13 deadlock in UCSD's favor. Colbert then deftly found the line for a 15-14 Triton edge. A lengthy rally concluded with a Bruin attack error, and the visitors called for time, down 16-14. Two 3-0 runs around another attack error, highlighted by a triple stuff by Reeves, Smith and Sprague, pushed UCLA ahead to stay, 21-18.
The third stanza wasn't as close. A final triple block, by Sprague, Michael Fisher and Oliver Martin, gave the Bruins an 8-4 cushion coming out of a Triton timeout. UCSD never got closer than within three over the remainder. Flowers did manage two more bright spots, however, with a solo stuff of Reeves at 17-11, and a kill at 18-12.
UCSD now heads into a second straight three-match week, which begins with a nationally-televised road date with No. 7 USC at the Galen Center in Los Angeles on Wednesday night, March 4. The contest will mark the Tritons' debut on the Pac-12 Networks, with first serve slated for 7 p.m. Check local listings.
Triton Notes: Tanner Syftestad has provided UCSD's team high in kills in five straight matches ... He has either paced the squad or shared the lead in kills in 12 of the Tritons' 17 matches this season ... Other leaders have been Shayne Beamer and Luke La Mont twice each, and Kirill Rudenko and Mathew Schnitzer once each ... Local product Bryan Zhu, a redshirt freshman middle blocker, started his first match since the 2015 opener at Concordia on Jan. 7 ... La Mont previously served a pair of aces in the win at Grand Canyon on Jan. 10.
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