UCLA closes season with games against Pepperdine, USC

With only two regular season games to play before the postseason conference tournament begins, now would be a bad time for a letdown from the UCLA men’s volleyball team.

Today’s matchup against Pepperdine certainly has the makings of a trap game for No. 3 UCLA (18-10, 14-8 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation). The team, coming off an emotional win over top-ranked Brigham Young, has all but locked into its playoff seed, and the season finale against bitter rival USC is on Friday.

On top of that, No. 6 Pepperdine (13-10, 12-10) has struggled lately and put up little resistance the last time these two teams met in February, resulting in a UCLA sweep.

But taking this game lightly would be a mistake for a variety of reasons. For one, there’s a good chance these two teams will have to face off again in the first round of the conference tournament as UCLA and Pepperdine currently sit in fourth and fifth place respectively in the MPSF.

“I think we’ll really take notes and pay attention to what they do against us on Wednesday and take that into the playoffs,” said redshirt junior libero Evan Mottram. “It’s cool that we get a little practice run against them in case we have to play them again. It’s perfect – we’ll be very accustomed to what they like to do for when it comes to our first playoff match.”

While this postseason matchup isn’t set in stone, the Bruins don’t want to waste the opportunity to send their potential playoff opponents a message.

“I think we’re pretty locked into the fourth seed, but we still want to finish strong,” said junior outside hitter Robart Page.

“We also want to make it clear that if they come in here and play the first round of the playoffs they’re going to have a tough game.”

The potential for another matchup in the near future isn’t the only reason the Bruins should be careful not to overlook today’s game. Although they appear to be at the low point of their season, the Waves are actually a more dangerous team than their recent run of results suggest.

“They’ve lost three of the last four but it doesn’t reflect how they’re playing,” said assistant coach Brad Keller.

“They’re playing better than when we played them up at their place. They’re passing better, they’re having better setter-hitter connections and they’re serving a little bit tougher. … We as a coaching staff are highly aware of that.”

Pepperdine may have improved since the last meeting, but UCLA is undeniably a much better team now as well.

The Bruins have been playing some of the best volleyball in the country since the start of March, winning seven of their last eight games.

“It’s not necessarily who starts off the best, it’s who can make the most improvement and who can finish the season playing at their peak,” Page said.

“It’s really huge to come out at the end of the season playing your best volleyball, so we want to keep getting better up until Friday.”