Set One
The Bruins took a blazing 7-1 lead in the first set, leading to an early timeout by the Cougars. Kills from Gavin Julien, Luke Benson and Ramanis immediately out of the huddle helped the Cougars gain momentum, with BYU now down four at 9-5.
Another kill from Benson and one from Kupono Browne helped BYU, but UCLA continued to tally the kills, keeping the Cougars at least six points behind. Back-to-back plays from Benson, including a kill and an ace, forced a Bruin timeout, with the Cougars cutting UCLA's lead to 17-14.
Two errors from the Bruins brought the Cougars within two at 18-16, but UCLA was able to knock down two kills to go back up by four points. Benson made another double play with back-to-back kills at 23-21 to force UCLA's final timeout of the set, but the Bruins would gain the next two points, winning 25-21 in the wire-to-wire set.
Set Two
The Bruins notched two aces to begin the second set, leading all the way until BYU called a timeout when down four at 6-2. After the huddle, UCLA committed a service error and the Cougars capitalized on the opportunity, going on an 8-0 run to bring the score to 11-8 in favor of BYU. Half of the run was from UCLA attack errors, paired with two kills from Benson and one from Julien.
Kills from Browne, Ramanis and Julien kept the momentum going for the Cougars, forcing a UCLA timeout. Two more UCLA errors and a BYU ace from Ramanis brought the score to 18-12 for the Cougars. The Bruins found late momentum with a 3-0 to cut BYU's lead to just one point at 21-20, but BYU would win four of the next five point, tying the game at 1-1 after a Bruin attack error gave BYU a 25-21 win in the second set.
Set Three
The third set remained more even than the last two previous sets, with ties at six and ten points. Three errors in a row by UCLA gave BYU a 13-10 advantage. Later, back-to-back kills from Teon Taylor and Browne forced UCLA to take a timeout when down five at 19-14.
Back-to-back errors by UCLA gave BYU a large lead at 21-15, after BYU subbed in Ian Little to the service line. Browne and Ramanis tallied two more kills, along with Julien and Taylor, to help the Cougars take a 2-1 set lead, winning the third set at 25-19.
Set Four
The fourth set continued with alternating points between both BYU and UCLA, with a Ramanis kill evening the score at six a piece. A kill by Browne would also tie the set at 10-10, his fourth of the night.
Trent Moser came off the bench for the Cougars and immediately recorded a kill, taking the score to 18-16 in favor of UCLA following a media timeout. The Bruins found a four-point lead after back-to-back kills by Champlin at 22-18. The Cougars then followed up by going on a 3-0 run courtesy of a Ramanis kill and Benson ace, but were never able to gain back a lead and dropped the fourth set 25-23 after a Cougar service error.
Ethan Champlin lead UCLA with eight kills in the fourth frame, helping UCLA force the decisive fifth set. Champlin would go on to lead all players in kills with 14 on a career-high .650 hitting percentage. Champlin also started the match at libero and switched to outside hitter in the fourth.
Set Five
Despite staying tied up at the beginning of the set, Champlin continued where he left off, tallying six more kills for the Bruins in set five. Browne helped the Cougars stay in it with three kills, but the Bruins persevered, winning 15-10.
Up Next
After having next week off, the Cougars will continute conference play by traveling to California for a pair of matches against Stanford starting on Friday, March 8 at 7 p.m. PST in Maples Pavilion.
