Men’s volleyball takes its winning streak on the road as it visits the Long Beach State 49ers
Thomas Amberg and the Bruins face Long Beach State at the Pyramid.
Men’s volleyball
Long Beach State
Today, 7 p.m.
Long Beach
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Fresh off a win in their first conference match of the season, UCLA will take on Long Beach State in another MPSF match.
By Jacob Ruffman
Jan. 21, 2011 2:14 a.m.
In hopes of continuing their extremely successful week, the UCLA men’s volleyball team will head to the Walter Pyramid to take on Long Beach State on Friday.
In the past week, the Bruins won the Outrigger Hotels Invitational in Hawai’i, went from No. 8 to No. 3 in the nation and then defeated Cal State Northridge 3-1 on Wednesday to open up league play.
“It’s been a really good week for us,” said coach Al Scates after the victory over CSUN. “These guys worked hard and deserved the win tonight, but it starts all over again tomorrow and I’ll be looking at film for the next game as soon as I get home.”
That match will be against a Long Beach State team that UCLA narrowly defeated in five sets in a match at the UC Santa Barbara Invitational earlier this year.
“I’m really excited to play Long Beach on Friday,” junior quick hitter Thomas Amberg said. “They have been our toughest competitor this year outside of Santa Barbara, so I’m looking forward to an exciting game and hopefully we’ll pull out a win and keep our winning streak alive.”
No. 11 Long Beach State (3-3, 2-1 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) has defeated both No. 5 UC Santa Barbara and then-No. 3 Pepperdine so far this season. UCSB, the only team to have beaten UCLA (6-1, 1-0) so far this season, was dispatched by the 49ers 3-0 on Tuesday.
“Going over to the Pyramid where they have a lot of fans and a lot of hecklers, we know that it will be an important game,” redshirt junior quick hitter Weston Dunlap said. “They have shown that they can play against and beat good teams, so we’ll have to stay focused and show what we can do.”
Dunlap, who took home All-Tournament honors at the Outrigger tournament, has been a major contributor to the team’s start this year.
“Wes is a great help because there is no drop-off at all whether he or Nick (Vogel) is in,” Amberg said. “That’s the best part about our program is that we have guys like Wes who can step in and play to an elite level consistently.”
CSULB has its own force in junior opposite hitter Jim Baughman, who leads the 49ers in kills, hitting percentage, service aces and points.
“Baughman is a great player,” Scates said. “He has a good frame and he was extremely well trained by (coach) Walt Ker, who has a great program out at Valencia, so he has had a lot of talent.”
Undoubtedly, the match promises to be a hard-fought one, especially after UCLA took the match in the UCSB tournament after Long Beach State went up 2-0 to start the match.
“It’s a quick turnaround going from playing Wednesday to playing Friday,” Scates said. “But I have faith that we’ll be ready for them and I know they’ll be ready for us.”
