Bruins vs. Flyers match report – 18th Outrigger Hotels Invitational Tournament
The 18th Outrigger Hotels Invitational Tournament brought University of California men’s volleyball team in competition with Lewis University Flyers on Thursday, January 12.
The Stan Sheriff Centre in Honolulu, Hawaii provided the backdrop for the exciting match. The match continued for almost two hours and finally UCLA Bruins emerged as the winners. Bruins posted 3-1 (27-25, 23-25, 25-15, 25-18) victory over Flyers in the first
match of the three-day tournament.
Jeremy Casebeer, the senior outside hitter of Bruins enjoyed the spotlight in the match. He added a total of 19 points and also set a new record of career-high 16 kills.
UCLA opened the match with convincing serves and promptly went up on the scoreboard. The Lewis players spent some time to settle down in their positions. They hit back strongly but the Bruins maintained a steady lead and kept the operations well under hand.
The Flyers struggled to catch up with the Bruins and levelled the score at 7-all.
UCLA changed the strategy and attacked from different angles. They managed to push the Flyers behind and took the score to 24-21. However, the resilient rival came up with flurry of attacks and hit the equaliser near the set points. The Flyers tied the score
at 24-all but the suffered the setback on account of an attack error in the crucial moments of the match, which helped Bruins to secure the first set, 27-25.
The next set was a complete thriller as the Flyers applied all of their tactics and threw everything in attack. The Bruins offered solid defence but could not stop the Flyers from taking second set with a two-point margin, 25-23.
After falling to Lewis in the second set, the UCLA regrouped and formed new combinations. They targeted the gaps and used tricky bump passes to overcome the opponent. The experiment worked out and Bruins pulled off success in third set, 25-15. The loss of
third set with big margin of 10 points proved to be disastrous for Lewis as they created a chance for Bruins to take the game away from them.
The Bruins continued the momentum from the third set into the fourth and played fast. They influenced the Flyers with strong offense and solid defence. The third set reached its end at 25-18, while Bruins were tagged as winners. Flyers fought bravely throughout
the match but it seemed as if they were out of luck. On the contrary, UCLA Bruins enjoyed a great rhythm and tone, and celebrated a wonderful victory.
The Bruins will return to action on Friday when they will put up against the Springfield College team. The Pride of Springfield has already lost one match to the hosts of the campaign, the University of Hawaii. Hence, it is expected that UCLA will have an
edge over them in the next match.
Tags: