UCLA men’s volleyball hits the road against Pepperdine

They won’t hear any more rowdy men’s water polo players distracting the opposing team. Nor will they experience the comfort of changing in their own locker room. When the UCLA men’s volleyball players steps on the court tonight, they will be in unfamiliar territory.

No. 3 UCLA (9-1, 4-0 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) will begin a six-game road stretch against No. 8 Pepperdine (6-2, 5-1 MPSF) today. UCLA has only played one true road game 10 games into the season.

“We’ll just be coming out with the same intensity we’ve been coming out with the whole season. It’s a different setting, but it’s the same game and as long as we just play our game, we’ll be fine,” senior quick hitter Thomas Amberg said on how his team plans to approach playing away from home.

Regardless of venue, it seems the Bruins will be tough for any team to stop. UCLA has won 20 straight sets in coasting to a seven-match winning streak.

“Well, we’re serving real tough, we’re forcing bad passes and we’ve got a great block so as long as the other team can’t pass perfectly, we’re going to score 40 percent of the time at least,” coach Al Scates said.

The Bruins’ aggressive play has held their last opponents to .125 and .058 hitting percentages, but their blocking will face another challenge against the Waves’ two power hitters.

Freshman outside hitter Josh Taylor leads Pepperdine with more than four kills per set and is second in the conference in this category.

His wingman, junior opposite Maurice Torres, is second on the team with 3.47 kills per set.

Leading the blocking defense for the Bruins is Amberg. He has 16 block assists in the team’s last two games.

“I think we’re a physically dominant team right now. We have real big size with (Nick) Vogel and (Kyle) Caldwell on the right side. Those are two 6-foot-9 blockers and Jeremy, who’s 6-foot-5, on the left side. He’s an experienced blocker, and Wes (Dunlap) and I in the middle, everyone’s so experienced,” Amberg said. “We’ve just been playing for so long and so much together that our block is just really clicking, and we have good timing.”

Amberg is also thriving offensively: The senior is the conference leader in hitting percentage at .585.

A pleasant surprise for the Bruins so far this season has been the hitting of redshirt senior outside hitter Jeremy Casebeer.

After only averaging 1.92 kills per set last year, Casebeer has raised the bar this season to more than three kills per set. He’s led the team in kills in five of its 10 games, including the last two.

“We’ve been passing pretty well, and it’s been really easy with good middles to open up our offense. (Assistant coach Brian) Rofer’s been helping me to work on my approach, so I’m able to see the block better, so I’ve been working on that, trying to see where the shots are and hit the smart shots,” Casebeer said.

Although Casebeer and the Bruins are confident in their own experience, they also know the trip will be an important test of the team’s ability to execute on the road.

“We just really need to stay focused and get a good warm-up. This will be a good test this week,” Casebeer added. “We’ve played against two good teams so far, and haven’t played many away games, so it’ll be good to test ourselves and play a few good teams on the road.”