Men’s volleyball works on defense fundamentals
Redshirt sophomore Kene Izuchukwu, left, and junior Gonzalo Quiroga, both outside hitters, look to improve the team’s serving for Sunday.
Pacific
Sunday, 2 p.m.Stockton, Calif.
No TV info
By Young Rae Kim
Jan. 25, 2013 1:38 a.m.
The fast-paced men’s volleyball schedule doesn’t leave much time for mourning losses.
The men’s volleyball team resumed practice on Thursday afternoon after a disappointing loss against Stanford on Tuesday night. This Sunday, UCLA will travel to face Pacific in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation matchup.
This will be UCLA’s third consecutive away game in the last two weeks. However, coach John Speraw does not think that being on the road will affect his team’s performance, saying the Bruins have bigger issues on their plate.
“We have too much else going on the volleyball court to even worry about whether we are home or away. We just have to go out and play better volleyball,” Speraw said.
At the beginning of practice, Speraw gathered his team around a whiteboard and listed the areas that needed improvement. One of the areas was defense.
“What we’re going to spend a lot of time on for the next couple days is working on some of our basic fundamentals of defense,” Speraw said.
Serving is another issue that the Bruins are looking to address before facing the Tigers on Sunday. In its previous match, UCLA committed 20 service errors while Stanford only committed 10.
“There (are) a lot of things to work on. Last game … as a team we missed a lot of serves. In practice, we’re going to focus on more serves at a higher level and hitting smarter so we can win some games in tough situations,” said redshirt sophomore outside hitter Kene Izuchukwu.
Izuchukwu had nine kills and 11 points against Stanford but also had four service errors. Junior outside hitter Gonzalo Quiroga had 12 kills and 14 points while committing five service errors.
“On the outside (redshirt junior outside hitter) Dane (Worley), (Izuchukwu), and of course me, we need to improve a little bit on our numbers. But overall I think we are getting better,” Quiroga said. As a team, the Bruins have struggled with maintaining consistency in their play.
They will have to keep a high level of intensity throughout the whole match in order to defeat Pacific Sunday.
“I think we can play with more competitive energy. We have a tendency to win a set and ease up a little bit. I thought we were over that but I guess we haven’t gotten over it yet,” Speraw said.
Email Kim at [email protected].
