On Wednesday night, the UCLA men’s volleyball team threw its first block party of the year, and Cal State Northridge was unlucky enough to be the guest of honor.

Led by its energized blocking defense, UCLA (8-1, 3-0 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) defeated Cal State Northridge (2-5, 1-3) 3-0. The Bruins came out of the gate fast, starting the first set with an 8-2 lead. “We were ready to go when the first game started, and in that game, Gonzalo (Quiroga) got us off to a fast start with his serving,” coach Al Scates said. The Matadors rallied to knot the score at 16-16, but the Bruins returned with their own counter, going on a 9-2 run to close out the set at 25-18.

UCLA senior setter Kyle Caldwell picked up four digs on defense in the first set, and the passing specialist would go on to finish with a match-high eight digs.

In the second set, UCLA jumped to an early lead once again, 7-2. Cal State Northridge was never able to overcome this deficit, losing the second set 25-15.

Redshirt senior outside hitter Jeremy Casebeer led the Bruins offensively in the second set with five kills. Casebeer’s 13 kills were a game-high.

Sophomore outside hitter Gonzalo Quiroga also shined on offense with seven kills and a .545 hitting percentage.

“Well, they’re a smaller team, and we were just playing the way we do,” Casebeer said.

“Kyle was putting the ball in the right places and making it easy, and our middles always make it easy for us.”

Redshirt sophomore libero Evan Mottram awoke in the second set with four digs on defense after going the entire first set without picking up any digs. The Bruins completely shut down the Matadors offense after the first set. UCLA held Cal State Northridge to a .000 hitting percentage in the second set. Even more surprising, the Bruins improved their defense in the final set. They overwhelmed the Matadors offense to the tune of a -.036 hitting percentage. “The main thing we did was blocking. Without a doubt, that was our best blocking games of the year, if not the last past few years,” Casebeer said. “We held them to 12 points in the last game, which is almost unheard of.” The anchor of the defense was senior middle hitter Thomas Amberg. He had 10 block assists, seven coming in the third set, and a solo block. Amberg was relentless in his blocking pursuits, covering the entirety of the court to get in front of opposing hitters. “I’ve really just taken a lot of pride in my blocking. I take my blocking personally. Every time I know when I should block a ball and I get mad at myself when I don’t,” Amberg said.

“So I just take it upon myself to make sure that I’m over the net, reaching into the seams, and taking away their tendencies each and every time.”

Senior opposite Nick Vogel, who missed the last game against Cal State Northridge, added five block assists.

Northridge’s star hitter from Germany, freshman opposite Julius Hoefer, had a .095 hitting percentage to counteract his nine kills.

UCLA’s serving also keyed its domination of the Northridge. Although the Bruins had 13 service errors, they had nine service aces. “That’s a good ratio, particularly when you’re serving hard and the other team starts to shank the ball all over the court,” Scates said.

“So we were going for it and it was a very good serving night. I didn’t see a lot of perfect passes from the other team today.”

“Gonzalo had great runs every time he went back to serve, and we just built upon those runs and we were scoring more and more points,” Amberg added.

The Bruins are on a six-game win streak and will next take the court this Saturday when they host the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos in the John Wooden Center.