As the ball soared upwards towards the low ceiling during Wednesday’s match at Pepperdine, images of a similar occurrence in Friday’s match against UC Santa Barbara came to mind. In that match, an errant hit sent the ball into the rafters, where it got stuck in a rolled up banner. On Wednesday, however, the ball ricocheted straight back to the court. Much like the ball, UCLA’s men’s volleyball team looked down to Earth against Pepperdine.

No. 3 UCLA’s 21-set winning streak ended against No. 8 Pepperdine (6-3, 5-2 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) Wednesday, but they were able to overcome some offensive struggles to win the match 3-2.

The Bruins (10-1, 5-0) weren’t too concerned with their streak ending, and were pleased to earn a tough win on the road.

“A win is a win and we’re happy to take a match away from Pepperdine on their home court,” senior opposite Nick Vogel said. “We’re also happy even taking it to five sets. It’s a nice wake-up call to realize that we’re not just going to be able to steamroll teams throughout our league.”

The Bruins took the first set 25-21, after squandering a five-point lead to let the Waves tie the game at 15.

The teams reached a 15-15 tie in the second set, as well, but this time it was Pepperdine who made a run, scoring seven of the next eight points and going on to win 25-21.

“We just weren’t able to score on them very well,” coach Al Scates said of the team’s second-set struggles.

Feeding off their anger from the loss, UCLA returned to their normal selves, dominating the third set. In their 25-14 win, they hit .600 while holding the Waves to .087 hitting.

“After losing the second set, we realized that we felt like we were kind of cruising through and not exactly, and so we came out the third set absolutely firing, really ready to take that set back because we were upset that we had lost our set winning streak,” Vogel said.

The Bruins were unable to maintain this level of play in the fourth set, however. Their 25-21 loss tied the match at 2-2 and sent them to the fifth set for the first time this season.

The Bruins got a quick 4-1 lead in fifth set, and went on to win 15-11, bolstered by several miscues by the Waves.

Not exhibiting their usual dominance, the Bruins seemed vulnerable on Wednesday, yet were able to prevail regardless. Pepperdine was a tough test, but their matchup against No. 4 USC on Friday could prove even tougher.