Top-ranked UCLA dialed up its play in the second set against BYU in the MPSF Men’s Volleyball semifinals on Thursday and the Cougars simply couldn’t match that level.

The Bruins (28-1) fired off eight aces, went turbo mode on offense and rolled to the MPSF finals, beating BYU 3-1 (20-25, 25-19, 25-17, 25-18) in front 2,204 disappointed fans at the Smith Fieldhouse.

The Cougars (21-12) were terrific in the first set, taking advantage of UCLA’s service errors (seven) to side out at 81%, riding four kills from Trent Moser and three each from Connor Oldani and Cole Hauser to the five-point victory.

After that, it was all Bruins, who got out to big leads in the next three sets and cruised to the win.

“We were right where we needed to be,” BYU coach Shawn Olmstead said. “Our guys executed and came out the right way. We rebounded after every side out that they made. I just think that when they (UCLA) started to really unload it from the service line, it rattled our guys and it was really hard for us to recover.”

The Bruins totaled four aces in Set 2, getting out to a 9-4 lead. Moser’s tip brough the Cougars back to within two at 15-13, but UCLA pushed to the finish, getting a Sean Kelly out-of-system kill to reach set point. Trent Taliaferro’s smash attack gave the Bruins a 25-19 win to even the match.

Things really came undone for BYU in the third set, falling behind 14-8 while hitting -.125. UCLA hit .636 to claim an 18-10 advantage and Cameron Thorne tooled the block for a 25-17 victory.

The Bruins raced to a 11-3 lead in Set 4 and while the Cougars rallied a bit to trail 18-13, the deficit was too much to make up. Kelly pounded the winner at 25-18 to send UCLA to the finals.

“We started off hot and they kind of came into the second set and they put a lot of service pressure on us,” BYU senior setter Tyler Herget said. “They’re a phenomenal team and there’s a reason why they’re the No. 1 team in the country. It’s because they serve really tough and they pass really well.”

Kelly and middle blocker Zach Rama did a lot of damage for the Bruins with 18 kills apiece, Rama hitting .500 (30 swings and just three errors). Setter Andrew Rowan, who had 44 assists, had three of UCLA’s eight aces and led his team to a .347 hitting percentage after a slow start.

Moser hit .600 (10 kills, one error, 15 swings) and Oldani also finished with 10 kills. Gavin Chambers added five block assists for the Cougars.

The service line, though, told the story: UCLA had more errors (24) but offset that number with eight aces, while BYU had 17 errors and zero aces.

BYU’s NCAA Tournament chances

While UCLA is probably the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament regardless of the results of the final against No. 3 seed USC on Saturday, BYU’s season is likely over. The tournament has been expanded to 12 teams this season with five at-large spots available and the Cougars will be considered.

BYU was ranked No. 8 in the country coming into the MPSF Tournament but have just one win of note (beating No. 6 USC 3-1 on April 10) and a whole lot of “good” losses. The Cougars lost to No. 1 UCLA three times, No. 2 Hawaii twice, No. 4 Pepperdine twice, No. 5 UC-Irvine twice and No. 6 USC once. The other two losses came to No. 14 Stanford, though BYU did beat the Cardinal in the quarterfinals of the MPSF Tournament.

A split at home with UC-Irvine or Pepperdine, along with perhaps turning a five-set loss to USC or Stanford into a victory, could have made a huge difference.

“The reality is, there were some of those matches that we needed to have back that are going to come down to in some of the at-large stuff,” Olmstead said. “Just me being honest and realistic about what’s out there and to not sugarcoat things, I don’t think we’ll get in because of those matches that we couldn’t capitalize on and that’s what it’s going to come down to.”

What Olmstead won’t say is the NCAA, in an attempt to grow the game of men’s volleyball, is handing out automatic bids for three fledgling leagues — Conference Carolinas, the Northeast Conference and the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference — which clearly aren’t at BYU’s level and likely won’t win an NCAA Tournament match for years.

Herget took a more optimistic approach to the Cougars’ chances.

“I’d like to believe that we do (have a chance),” he said. “I think that we deserve a shot. There’s a reason we’re the No. 8 team in the country, in my personal opinion. I think that we’ve proved that we can compete at a high level and other teams have as well. So I think we just leave it to that.”

The NCAA Tournament pairings will be announced on Sunday.